Floating point scaling processors, methods, systems, and instructions

ABSTRACT

A method of an aspect includes receiving a floating point scaling instruction. The floating point scaling instruction indicates a first source including one or more floating point data elements, a second source including one or more corresponding floating point data elements, and a destination. A result is stored in the destination in response to the floating point scaling instruction. The result includes one or more corresponding result floating point data elements each including a corresponding floating point data element of the second source multiplied by a base of the one or more floating point data elements of the first source raised to a power of an integer representative of the corresponding floating point data element of the first source. Other methods, apparatus, systems, and instructions are disclosed.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 15/922,074, filed on Mar. 15, 2018, entitled as “FLOATING POINTSCALING PROCESSORS, METHODS, SYSTEMS, AND INSTRUCTIONS”, whichcontinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/262,609, filed onSep. 12, 2016, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,921,807, which is a continuation ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/977,086, filed on Jun. 28, 2013, nowU.S. Pat. No. 9,448,765, Issued on Sep. 20, 2016, which is a U.S.National Phase Application under 35 U.S.C. Section § 371 ofInternational Application No. PCT/US2011/067684, filed on Dec. 28, 2011,which is hereby incorporated herein by this reference in its entiretyand for all purposes.

BACKGROUND Field

Embodiments relate to processors. In particular, embodiments relate toprocessors to scale floating point numbers responsive to floating pointscaling instructions.

Background Information

Floating point numbers are commonly used in processors, computersystems, and other electronic devices. One advantage of floating pointnumbers is that they allow a wide range of numerical values to berepresented in a relatively compact numerical format and/or number ofbits.

A number of different floating point formats are known in the art. Thefloating point format typically apportions the bits used to representthe floating point number into several constituent fields known as thesign, the significand, and the exponent of the floating point number.

Various machine instructions are known in the art for processingfloating point numbers. For example, machine instructions are known inthe art for converting between floating point and integer values.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention may best be understood by referring to the followingdescription and accompanying drawings that are used to illustrateembodiments. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a processor having aninstruction set that includes one or more floating point scalinginstructions.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of an instruction processingapparatus having a floating point execution unit that is operable toexecute an embodiment of a floating point scaling instruction.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a floating pointscaling operation that may be performed in response to an embodiment ofa floating point scaling instruction.

FIGS. 4A-E are block diagrams illustrating example embodiments ofsuitable floating point formats.

FIG. 5 is a block flow diagram of an embodiment of a method ofprocessing an embodiment of a floating point scaling instruction.

FIG. 6A-C are block diagrams illustrating embodiments of floating pointscaling operations that may be performed on packed 32-bit singleprecision floating point data.

FIG. 7A-B are block diagrams illustrating embodiments of floating pointscaling operations that may be performed on packed 64-bit doubleprecision floating point data.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a floating pointscaling operation that may be performed on scalar 32-bit singleprecision floating point data.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a floating pointscaling operation that may be performed on scalar 64-bit doubleprecision floating point data.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a floatingpoint scaling operation with data element broadcast.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a maskedfloating point scaling operation.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of packed dataoperation mask registers.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a floatingpoint scaling operation with addition.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram of an embodiment of an instruction format fora floating point scaling instruction.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram of an embodiment of packed data registers.

FIG. 16 is a block diagram of an article of manufacture including amachine-readable storage medium storing a floating point scalinginstruction.

FIG. 17A is a block diagram illustrating a generic vector friendlyinstruction format and class A instruction templates thereof accordingto embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 17B is a block diagram illustrating the generic vector friendlyinstruction format and class B instruction templates thereof accordingto embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 18A is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary specific vectorfriendly instruction format according to embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 18B is a block diagram illustrating the fields of the specificvector friendly instruction format that make up the full opcode fieldaccording to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 18C is a block diagram illustrating the fields of the specificvector friendly instruction format that make up the register index fieldaccording to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 18D is a block diagram illustrating the fields of the specificvector friendly instruction format that make up the augmentationoperation field according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 19 is a block diagram of a register architecture according to oneembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 20A is a block diagram illustrating both an exemplary in-orderpipeline and an exemplary register renaming, out-of-orderissue/execution pipeline according to embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 20B shows processor core including a front end unit coupled to anexecution engine unit, and both are coupled to a memory unit.

FIG. 21A is a block diagram of a single processor core, along with itsconnection to the on-die interconnect network and with its local subsetof the Level 2 (L2) cache 2104, according to embodiments of theinvention.

FIG. 21B is an expanded view of part of the processor core in FIG. 21Aaccording to embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 22 is a block diagram of a processor that may have more than onecore, may have an integrated memory controller, and may have integratedgraphics according to embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 23 shown is a block diagram of a system in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 24 shown is a block diagram of a first more specific exemplarysystem in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 25 shown is a block diagram of a second more specific exemplarysystem in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 26, shown is a block diagram of a SoC in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 27 is a block diagram contrasting the use of a software instructionconverter to convert binary instructions in a source instruction set tobinary instructions in a target instruction set according to embodimentsof the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Disclosed herein are floating point scaling instructions, processors toexecute the floating point scaling instructions, methods performed bythe processors when processing or executing the floating point scalinginstructions, and systems incorporating one or more processors toprocess or execute the floating point scaling instructions. Any of thevarious processors and systems disclosed herein is suitable. In thefollowing description, numerous specific details are set forth (e.g.,specific processor configurations, sequences of operations, instructionformats, floating point formats, microarchitectural details, etc.).However, embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. Inother instances, well-known circuits, structures and techniques have notbeen shown in detail to avoid obscuring the understanding of thedescription.

It is often useful to scale floating point numbers. Scaling the floatingpoint numbers refers to multiplying the floating point numbers by a baseraised to a power of another number. Specifically, it is often useful toscale the floating point numbers by multiplying each of them by a baseraised to an integer power.

Commonly, the integer power is derived from another floating pointnumber. One exemplary use of such scaling of floating point numbers isin the reconstruction of floating point numbers from separated exponentand significand pairs. By way of example, the exponents and significandsof the floating point numbers may be extracted or separated from oneanother, and then the separated exponents and significands may beseparately processed through a series of calculations. Subsequently,after such separate processing, floating point numbers may bereassembled or reconstructed by combining their separately processedexponents and significands. Scaling of floating point numbers is alsouseful for other purposes (e.g., as a general operation on floatingpoint numbers, in conjunction with processing exponentials, squareroots, logarithms, trigonometric functions, and other transcendentalfunctions, etc.)

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a processor 100 having aninstruction set 102 that includes one or more floating point scalinginstructions 103. The processor may be any of various complexinstruction set computing (CISC) processors, various reduced instructionset computing (RISC) processors, various very long instruction word(VLIW) processors, various hybrids thereof, or other types of processorsentirely. In some embodiments, the processor may be a general-purposeprocessor (e.g., a general-purpose microprocessor of the type used indesktop, laptop, and like computers). Alternatively, the processor maybe a special-purpose processor. Examples of suitable special-purposeprocessors include, but are not limited to, network processors,communications processors, cryptographic processors, graphicsprocessors, co-processors, embedded processors, digital signalprocessors (DSPs), floating point co-processors, and controllers (e.g.,microcontrollers), to name just a few examples.

The processor has an instruction set architecture (ISA) 101. The ISArepresents a part of the architecture of the processor related toprogramming. The ISA commonly includes the native instructions,architectural registers, data types, addressing modes, memoryarchitecture, interrupt and exception handling, and external input andoutput (I/O) of the processor. The ISA is distinguished from themicroarchitecture, which generally represents the particular processordesign techniques selected to implement the ISA. Processors withdifferent microarchitectures may share a common ISA.

The ISA includes an instruction set 102 that is supported by theprocessor. The instructions of the instruction set representmacroinstructions (e.g., instructions provided to the processor forexecution), as opposed to microinstructions or micro-ops (e.g., thosewhich result from a decoder of the processor decodingmacroinstructions). The instruction set includes one or more floatingpoint scaling instructions 103. Various different embodiments offloating point scaling instructions will be disclosed further below. Theprocessor also includes floating point execution logic 108 operable toexecute or process the floating point scaling instructions 103.

The ISA also includes architecturally-visible registers (e.g., anarchitectural register file) 104. The architectural registers generallyrepresent on-die processor storage locations. The architecturalregisters may also be referred to herein simply as registers. Unlessotherwise specified or apparent, the phrases architectural register,register file, and register are used herein to refer to registers thatare visible to the software and/or programmer (e.g., software-visible)and/or the registers that are specified by general-purposemacroinstructions to identify operands. These registers are contrastedto other non-architectural or non-architecturally visible registers in agiven microarchitecture (e.g., temporary registers used by instructions,reorder buffers, retirement registers, etc.).

The illustrated architectural registers include packed data registers105. Each of the packed data registers is operable to store packed data,vector data, or SIMD data. In some embodiments, the packed dataregisters may be used to store packed floating point data associatedwith the floating point scaling instruction(s) 103. In some embodiments,the packed data registers may also be able to store integer data,although this is not required. In some embodiments, the packed dataregisters may be used to store scalar floating point data associatedwith the floating point scaling instruction(s). Alternatively, thearchitectural registers may include a separate set of scalar floatingpoint registers to respectively store scalar floating point data for thefloating point scaling instruction(s).

In some embodiments, the registers may optionally include mask registers106, although this is not required. The mask registers may store packeddata operation masks to mask or predicate packed data operations (e.g.packed data operations associated with the floating point scalinginstructions). Mask registers and masked operations will be discussedfurther below.

The registers also include control and/or status registers 107. In someaspects, one or more of the control and/or status registers may includestatus and/or control information associated with execution of thefloating point scaling instructions (e.g., they may include a defaultrounding mode to be used by the floating point scaling instructionsunless there is an override).

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of an instruction processingapparatus 200 having a floating point execution unit 208 that isoperable to execute instructions including an embodiment of a floatingpoint scaling instruction 203. In some embodiments, the instructionprocessing apparatus may be a processor and/or may be included in aprocessor. For example, in some embodiments, the instruction processingapparatus may be, or may be included in, the processor 100 of FIG. 1, orone similar. Alternatively, the instruction processing apparatus may beincluded in a different processor, or electronic system. In someembodiments, the instruction processing apparatus may be included in anadd-on or separate floating point processor or unit to introduce orsupplement floating point processing capability of an associatedprocessor.

The instruction processing apparatus 200 may receive the floating pointscaling instruction 203. For example, the instruction may be receivedfrom an instruction fetch unit, an instruction queue, or a memory. Thefloating point scaling instruction may represent a machine instruction,macroinstruction, or control signal that is recognized by theinstruction processing apparatus and that controls the apparatus toperform a particular operation.

The floating point scaling instruction may explicitly specify (e.g.,through bits or one or more fields) or otherwise indicate (e.g.,implicitly indicate) a first source 216, may specify or otherwiseindicate a second source 218, and may specify or otherwise indicate adestination (e.g., a destination storage location) 220 where a result222 is to be stored in accordance with the instruction. The first sourceincludes one or more floating point data elements 217, the second sourceincludes one or more corresponding floating point data elements 219. Thecorresponding data elements may correspond in same relative positionswithin the sources.

A floating point number includes a sign, significand, base, andexponent, which are related as shown in Equation 1:

A=(−1)^(sign)*significand*base^(exponent)  Equation 1

The expression “(−1) sign” represents negative one raised to the powerof the sign. This expression evaluates whether the floating point numberis positive (+) or negative (−). For example, when the sign is integerzero the floating point number is positive, or alternatively when thesign is integer one the floating point number is negative. Thesignificand includes a digit string of a length that largely determinesthe precision of the floating point number. The significand is alsosometimes referred to as the significant digits, the coefficient, thefraction, or the mantissa. The radix point (e.g., the decimal point fordecimal format) is commonly implicitly assumed to reside at a fixedposition (e.g., just to the right of the leftmost or most significantdigit). The expression “baseexponent” represents the base raised to thepower of the exponent. This may also be stated as the base raised to theexponent power, the base raised to the exponent, or simply as the baseto the exponent. The base is commonly base 2 (for binary), base 10 (fordecimal), or base 16 (for hexadecimal). The base is sometimes referredto as the radix. The exponent is also referred to as a characteristic orscale. Raising the base to the power of the exponent in effect shiftsthe radix point (e.g., from the implicit or assumed starting position)by the exponent number of digits. The radix point is shifted to theright if the exponent is positive, or to the left if the exponent isnegative.

Referring again to FIG. 2, in some embodiments, the first source 216,the second source 218, and the destination 220, may each be within a setof packed data registers 205 of the instruction processing apparatus,although this is not required. The packed data registers may eachrepresent an on-die storage location (e.g., on die with the executionunit). The packed data registers may represent architectural registers.Each of the packed data registers may be operable to store packed orvector floating point data. In some embodiments, the packed dataregisters may also be operable to store scalar floating point data. Thepacked data registers may be implemented in different ways in differentmicroarchitectures using well-known techniques, and are not limited toany particular type of circuit.

Various different types of registers are suitable as long as they arecapable of storing and providing data as described herein. Examples ofsuitable types of registers include, but are not limited to, dedicatedphysical registers, dynamically allocated physical registers usingregister renaming, and combinations thereof. Alternatively, in otherembodiments, one or more of the first source, the second source, thedestination, or some combination thereof, may be stored in other storagelocations besides the packed data registers (e.g., in scalar floatingpoint registers, memory locations, etc.).

The illustrated instruction processing apparatus includes an instructiondecode unit or decoder 214. The decoder may receive and decodehigher-level machine instructions or macroinstructions, and output oneor more lower-level micro-operations, micro-code entry points,microinstructions, or other lower-level instructions or control signalsthat reflect and/or are derived from the original higher-levelinstruction. The one or more lower-level instructions or control signalsmay implement the operation of the higher-level instruction through oneor more lower-level (e.g., circuit-level or hardware-level) operations.The decoder may be implemented using various different mechanismsincluding, but not limited to, microcode read only memories (ROMs),look-up tables, hardware implementations, programmable logic arrays(PLAs), and other mechanisms used to implement decoders known in theart.

In other embodiments, instead of having the decoder 214, an instructionemulator, translator, morpher, interpreter, or other instructionconversion logic may be used. Various different types of instructionconversion logic are known in the arts and may be implemented insoftware, hardware, firmware, or a combination thereof. The instructionconversion logic may receive the instruction, emulate, translate, morph,interpret, or otherwise convert the received instruction into one ormore corresponding derived instructions or control signals. In stillother embodiments, both instruction conversion logic and a decoder maybe used. For example, the apparatus may have instruction conversionlogic to convert the received instruction into one or more intermediateinstructions, and a decoder to decode the one or more intermediateinstructions into one or more lower-level instructions or controlsignals executable by native hardware of the instruction processingapparatus. Some or all of the instruction conversion logic may belocated off-die from the rest of the instruction processing apparatus,such as on a separate die or in an off-die memory.

Referring again to FIG. 2, the floating point execution unit 208 iscoupled with the decoder 214. The execution unit may receive from thedecoder one or more micro-operations, micro-code entry points,microinstructions, other instructions, or other control signals, whichreflect, or are derived from, the floating point scaling instruction.The execution unit is also coupled with the first source 216, the secondsource 218, and the destination 220. The floating point execution unitincludes logic (e.g., typically at least some circuitry) designed tocarry out operations (e.g., arithmetic operations, scaling operations,etc.) on floating point numbers.

The floating point execution unit 208 is operable, in response to and/oras a result of the floating point scaling instruction 203, whichspecifies or otherwise indicates the first source 216 including the oneor more floating point data elements 217, specifies or otherwiseindicates the second source 218 including the one or more correspondingfloating point data elements 219, and specifies or otherwise indicatesthe destination 220, to store a result 222 in the destination. Theresult includes one or more corresponding result scaled floating pointdata elements. In some embodiments, each of the one or more resultscaled floating point data elements includes a corresponding floatingpoint data element of the second source multiplied by a base raised to apower of an integer representative of the corresponding floating pointdata element of the first source. The base is the same base as the oneor more floating point data elements of the first source (e.g., commonlybase 2 but may also be base 10, base 16, etc.).

The floating point execution unit and/or the instruction processingapparatus may include specific or particular logic (e.g., typicallycircuitry or other hardware potentially combined with software and/orfirmware) operable to execute and/or process the floating point scalinginstruction, and store the result in response to the instruction (e.g.,in response to one or more microinstructions or other control signalsderived from the instruction). In some embodiments, the floating pointexecution unit may include integrated circuitry, digital circuits,application specific integrated circuits, analog circuits, programmedlogic devices, storage devices including instructions, or a combinationthereof. In some embodiments, the floating point execution unit mayinclude at least some circuitry or hardware (e.g., specific circuitsconfigured from transistors, gates, and/or other integrated circuitrycomponents).

To avoid obscuring the description, a relatively simple instructionprocessing apparatus has been shown and described. In other embodiments,the instruction processing apparatus may optionally include otherwell-known components, such as, for example, an instruction fetch unit,an instruction scheduling unit, a branch prediction unit, instructionand data caches, instruction and data translation lookaside buffers,prefetch buffers, microinstruction queues, microinstruction sequencers,bus interface units, second or higher level caches, a retirement unit, aregister renaming unit, other components included in processors, andvarious combinations thereof. Embodiments may have multiple cores,logical processors, or execution engines. An execution unit operable toexecute an embodiment of an instruction disclosed herein may be includedin at least one, at least two, most, or all of the cores, logicalprocessors, or execution engines. There are literally numerous differentcombinations and configurations of components in processors, andembodiments are not limited to any particular combination orconfiguration.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a floating pointscaling operation 324 that may be performed in response to an embodimentof a floating point scaling instruction. The instruction specifies orotherwise indicates a first source 317 including one or more floatingpoint data elements, and a second source 318 including one or morecorresponding floating point data elements. In some embodiments, thefirst source includes a single scalar floating point data element A₀,and the second source includes a single scalar floating point dataelement B₀. In other embodiments, the first source includes a pluralityof N packed floating point data elements A₀-A_(N), and the second sourceincludes a corresponding plurality of N packed floating point dataelements B₀-B_(N), where N is two or more. Commonly, the number N of thepacked floating point data elements may be equal to the size in bits ofthe packed data divided by the size in bits of the floating point dataelements.

The floating point scaling instruction also specifies or otherwiseindicates a destination (e.g., a destination storage location). A result322 including one or more corresponding result floating point dataelements may be generated and stored in the destination in response tothe floating point scaling instruction. In some embodiments, each of theone or more result floating point data elements (C_(i)) may represent ascaled floating point result data element that includes a correspondingfloating point data element of the second source (B_(i)) multiplied by abase raised to a power of an integer representative of the correspondingfloating point data element (A_(i)) of the first source (int(A₀)),according to the equation:

C _(i) =B _(i)*base^(int(A) ^(i) ₎  Equation 2

The base may be the base of the floating point data elements of thefirst and/or second sources (e.g., commonly base 2 but alternativelybase 10 or base 16).

In some embodiments, the floating point scaling instruction/operationmay permit the first source to have non-integer floating point values.This may help to avoid one or more preceding instructions to generatethe integer values as input to the floating point scalinginstruction/operation (e.g., to perform bit level extraction, etc.). Insome embodiments, the floating point scaling instruction/operation maybe operative to calculate or determine the one or more integers that arerepresentative of the one or more corresponding floating point dataelements of the first source (e.g., representative of their magnitudes)within the confines of the execution of the single floating pointscaling instruction/operation. In some embodiments, each integer may bethe maximum integer that is less than or equal to the correspondingfloating point data element of the first source (e.g., the floor). Inother embodiments, each integer may be the minimum integer that isgreater than or equal to the corresponding floating point data elementof the first source (e.g., the ceiling). Other integers representativeof the magnitudes of the corresponding floating point data elements mayalso be used based on other conversion conventions.

In some embodiments, the floating point scaling instruction/operationmay permit the first and/or second sources to include floating pointdata elements having special values defined for floating point numbers(e.g., a positive infinity, a negative infinity, a Not a Number (NaN), adenormal number, etc.). In such embodiments, the instruction/operationmay complete execution and store the result without generating aninterrupt, trap, or other exception (e.g., an underflow or overflowexception). By way of example, the first source may include a floatingpoint data element that is one of a Not a Number (NaN), a positiveinfinity, a negative infinity, and a denormal number, and a result maybe stored without generating an exception. As another example, the firstsource may include a floating point data element that is a Not a Number(NaN), execution may complete without an exception, and thecorresponding result floating point data element in the result may be aNaN. As yet another example, the second source may include a floatingpoint data element that is positive infinity, the first source mayinclude a corresponding floating point data element that is a Not aNumber (NaN), execution may complete without an exception, and thecorresponding result floating point data element may be a Not a Number(NaN). Advantageously, the ability of the instruction to handle extremeconditions without exceptions and without needing a series ofinstructions to check for extreme conditions and handle them when theyoccur may tend to increase computational efficiency.

Moreover, even when the inputs are not special, the result may bespecial (e.g., may overflow or may underflow when the result does notfit within the floating-point format). In such cases, the instructionmay be operable to properly handle these special cases, for example insome embodiments in accordance with IEEE standard specifications. Whensuch special conditions occur, execution of the instruction may completewithout an interrupt or exception. That is, the instruction is operableto properly handle special inputs and/or special outputs.Advantageously, exceptions and interrupts may be avoided and alsoadditional processing to cover such special cases with separateinstruction sequences is not necessary.

FIGS. 4A-E are block diagrams illustrating example embodiments ofsuitable floating point formats. The Institute of Electrical andElectronics Engineers (IEEE) has standardized these formats in variousversions of the standard IEEE 754.

FIG. 4A illustrates a half precision floating point format 410A. Thehalf precision floating point format has 16-bits and is also referred toas binary 16. The half precision floating point format includes a 10-bitsignificand 411A in bits [9:0], a 5-bit exponent 412A in bits [14:10],and a 1-bit sign 413A in bit [15].

FIG. 4B illustrates a single precision floating point format 410B. Thesingle precision floating point format has 32-bits and is also referredto as binary 32. The single precision floating point format includes a23-bit significand 411B in bits [22:0], an 8-bit exponent 412B in bits[30:23], and a 1-bit sign 413B in bit [31].

FIG. 4C illustrates a double precision floating point format 410C. Thedouble precision floating point format has 64-bits and is also referredto as binary 64. The double precision floating point format includes a52-bit significand 411C in bits [51:0], an 11-bit exponent 412C in bits[62:52], and a 1-bit sign 413C in bit [63]. Currently, single precisionand double precision formats are perhaps the most widely used by themajority of processors, computer systems, and electronic devices.

FIG. 4D illustrates an extended double precision floating point format410D. The extended double precision floating point format has 80-bits.The extended double precision floating point format includes a 64-bitsignificand 411D in bits [63:0], a 15-bit exponent 412D in bits [78:64],and a 1-bit sign 413D in bit [79].

FIG. 4E illustrates a quadruple precision floating point format 410E.The quadruple precision floating point format has 128-bits and is alsoreferred to as binary 128. The quadruple precision floating point formatincludes a 112-bit significand 411E in bits [111:0], a 15-bit exponent412E in bits [126:112], and a 1-bit sign 413E in bit [127].

In each of these floating point formats, the base is implicit or assumedto be base 2 (i.e., binary) and is not stored separately in the floatingpoint formats. The most significant or leftmost bit of the significandsis known as the J-bit. The J-bit is implicitly assumed to be binary 1,and is generally not stored in the floating point formats but rather isan implicit or hidden bit that provides additional precision (e.g., asingle precision floating point number which explicitly has 23-bits forthe significand actually has 24-bits of precision) without needing to bestored. The radix point is generally presumed to follow the J-bit. Theexponents generally have an exponent bias. For example, the halfprecision format may have an exponent bias of 15, the single precisionformat may have an exponent bias of 127, the double precision format mayhave an exponent bias of 1023, and the quadruple precision format mayhave an exponent bias of 16383. Further details on floating pointnumbers and formats, if desired, are available in IEEE 754.

These are just a few illustrative examples. Other suitable formatsinclude, but are not limited to, decimal 32, decimal 64, and decimal128. Moreover, other formats developed in the future will also generallybe suitable.

FIG. 5 is a block flow diagram of an embodiment of a method 524 ofprocessing an embodiment of a floating point scaling instruction. Invarious embodiments, the method may be performed by a general-purposeprocessor, a special-purpose processor (e.g., a graphics processor or adigital signal processor), or another type of digital logic device orinstruction processing apparatus. In some embodiments, the method 524may be performed by the processor 100 of FIG. 1, or the instructionprocessing apparatus 200 of FIG. 2. Alternatively, the method 524 may beperformed by different embodiments of processors or instructionprocessing apparatus. Moreover, the processor 100 of FIG. 1, and theinstruction processing apparatus 200 of FIG. 2, may perform embodimentsof operations and methods either same as, similar to, or different thanthose of the method 524 of FIG. 5.

The method includes receiving the floating point scaling instruction, atblock 525. The floating point scaling instruction specifies or otherwiseindicates a first source including one or more floating point dataelements, specifies or otherwise indicates a second source including oneor more corresponding floating point data elements, and specifies orotherwise indicates a destination (e.g., a destination storagelocation). In various aspects, the instruction may be received at aprocessor, an instruction processing apparatus, or a portion thereof(e.g., a decoder, instruction converter, etc.). In various aspects, theinstruction may be received from an off-processor source (e.g., from amain memory, a disc, or a bus or interconnect), or from an on-processorsource (e.g., from an instruction cache).

Then, a result is stored in the destination in response to, as a resultof, and/or as specified by the floating point scaling instruction, atblock 526. The result includes one or more corresponding result floatingpoint data elements. Each of the one or more result floating point dataelements includes a corresponding floating point data element of thesecond source multiplied by a base (e.g., of the one or more floatingpoint data elements of the first source) raised to a power of an integerrepresentative of the corresponding floating point data element of thefirst source. By way of example, a floating point execution unit,instruction processing apparatus, or processor including at least somecircuitry may perform the operation specified by the instruction andstore the result.

The illustrated method includes operations that are visible from outsidea processor or instruction processing apparatus (e.g., visible from asoftware perspective). In other embodiments, the method may optionallyinclude one or more operations occurring internally within theprocessor. By way of example, the floating point scaling instruction maybe fetched, and then decoded, translated, emulated, or otherwiseconverted, into one or more other instructions or control signals. Thesource operands/data may be accessed and/or received. A floating pointexecution unit may be enabled to perform the operation specified by theinstruction, and may perform the operation (e.g., microarchitecturaloperations to implement the operations of the instructions may beperformed).

FIG. 6A-C are block diagrams illustrating embodiments of floating pointscaling operations that may be performed on packed 32-bit singleprecision floating point data in response to embodiments of floatingpoint scaling instructions.

FIG. 6A illustrates a first embodiment of a floating point scalingoperation 624A that may be performed on a first 64-bit source packeddata 617A that includes two packed 32-bit single precision floatingpoint data elements A₀-A₁, and a second 64-bit source packed data 618Athat includes two corresponding packed 32-bit single precision floatingpoint data elements B₀-B₁, to generate and store a 64-bit result 622Athat includes two corresponding packed 32-bit single precision resultfloating point data elements C₀-C₁.

FIG. 6B illustrates a second embodiment of a floating point scalingoperation 624B that may be performed on a first 128-bit source packeddata 617B that includes four packed 32-bit single precision floatingpoint data elements A₀-A₃, and a second 128-bit source packed data 618Bthat includes four corresponding packed 32-bit single precision floatingpoint data elements B₀-B₃, to generate and store a 128-bit result 622Bthat includes four corresponding packed 32-bit single precision resultfloating point data elements C₀-C₃.

FIG. 6C illustrates a third embodiment of a floating point scalingoperation 624C that may be performed on a first 256-bit source packeddata 617C that includes eight packed 32-bit single precision floatingpoint data elements A₀-A₇, and a second 256-bit source packed data 618Cthat includes eight corresponding packed 32-bit single precisionfloating point data elements B₀-B₇, to generate and store a 256-bitresult 622C that includes eight corresponding packed 32-bit singleprecision result floating point data elements C₀-C₇.

In each of FIGS. 6A-C, each of the 32-bit single precision resultfloating point data elements (C_(i)) includes the corresponding 32-bitsingle precision floating point data element of the second source(B_(i)) multiplied by base two (2) raised to a power of an integerrepresentative of the corresponding 32-bit single precision floatingpoint data element of the first source (int(A_(i))).

FIG. 7A-B are block diagrams illustrating embodiments of floating pointscaling operations that may be performed on packed 64-bit doubleprecision floating point data in response to embodiments of floatingpoint scaling instructions.

FIG. 7A illustrates a first embodiment of a floating point scalingoperation 724A that may be performed on a first 128-bit source packeddata 717A that includes two packed 64-bit double precision floatingpoint data elements A₀-A₁, and a second 128-bit source packed data 718Athat includes two corresponding packed 64-bit double precision floatingpoint data elements B₀-B₁, to generate and store a 128-bit result 722Athat includes two corresponding packed 64-bit double precision resultfloating point data elements C₀-C₁.

FIG. 7B illustrates a second embodiment of a floating point scalingoperation 724B that may be performed on a first 256-bit source packeddata 717B that includes four packed 64-bit double precision floatingpoint data elements A₀-A₃, and a second 256-bit source packed data 718Bthat includes four corresponding packed 64-bit double precision floatingpoint data elements B₀-B₃, to generate and store a 256-bit result 722Bthat includes four corresponding packed 64-bit double precision resultfloating point data elements C₀-C₃.

In each of FIGS. 7A-B, each of the 64-bit double precision resultfloating point data elements (C_(i)) includes the corresponding 64-bitdouble precision floating point data element of the second source(B_(i)) multiplied by base two (2) raised to a power of an integerrepresentative of the corresponding 64-bit double precision floatingpoint data element of the first source (int(A_(i))).

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a floating pointscaling operation 824 that may be performed on scalar 32-bit singleprecision floating point data in response to an embodiment of a floatingpoint scaling instruction. The operation is performed on a first source817 of a scalar 32-bit single precision floating point data element A,and a second source 818 of a scalar 32-bit single precision floatingpoint data element B. A result 822 stored in response to the operationand/or instruction includes a corresponding scalar 32-bit singleprecision result floating point data element C. The scalar 32-bit singleprecision result floating point data element C includes thecorresponding 32-bit single precision floating point data element of thesecond source (B) multiplied by base two (2) raised to a power of aninteger representative of the corresponding 32-bit single precisionfloating point data element of the first source (int(A)).

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a floating pointscaling operation 924 that may be performed on scalar 64-bit doubleprecision floating point data in response to an embodiment of a floatingpoint scaling instruction. The operation is performed on a first source917 of a scalar 64-bit double precision floating point data element A,and a second source 918 of a scalar 64-bit double precision floatingpoint data element B. A result 922 stored in response to the operationand/or instruction includes a corresponding scalar 64-bit doubleprecision result floating point data element C. The scalar 64-bit doubleprecision result floating point data element C includes thecorresponding 64-bit double precision floating point data element of thesecond source (B) multiplied by base two (2) raised to a power of aninteger representative of the corresponding 64-bit double precisionfloating point data element of the first source (int(A)).

As shown in FIGS. 8-9, in some embodiments, the first source may bestored in a first packed data storage location (e.g., a packed dataregister), the second source may be stored in a second packed datastorage location, and the result may be stored in a third packed datastorage location, although this is not required. Alternatively, one ormore of these may alternatively be stored in a non-packed register ormemory location.

These are just a few illustrative embodiments of floating point scalingoperations. Operations on single precision and double precision floatingpoint data have been shown due to the widespread use of these formats.However, in other embodiments floating point scaling operations mayoperate on other floating point formats (e.g., half precision, quadrupleprecision, extended double precision, etc.). In the illustrations, thefloating point formats of both sources are the same, although in otherembodiments the floating point formats of the sources may be different(e.g., mixed-format scaling operations may be performed). For simplicityof illustration, packed data having a width of 256-bits or less has beenshown. However, in other embodiments floating point scaling operationsmay operate on packed data having widths of 512-bits or wider (e.g.,including at least sixteen 32-bit single precision floating point dataelements or at least eight 64-bit double precision floating point dataelements). Moreover, floating point scaling operations using base 2 havebeen shown, due to the current widespread use of base 2. However, inother embodiments floating point scaling operations may use other bases(e.g., base 10, base 16, etc.).

FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a floatingpoint scaling operation with data element broadcast 1024 that may beperformed in response to an embodiment of a floating point scalinginstruction with data element broadcast. Data element broadcast isuseful in algorithms where it is desired to reuse a single source dataelement for each of multiple vector operations. The instruction mayindicate a first source 1017 having a single floating point data elementA which is to be broadcast, a second source 1018 having a plurality ofpacked floating point data elements B₀-B_(N) where N is at least two,and a destination.

The floating point scaling instruction with data element broadcast maycombine an initial data element broadcast of the single floating pointdata element A of the first source with a subsequent floating pointscaling operation. The initial data element broadcast may broadcast orreplicate the single floating point data element A multiple times (e.g.,a number of times equal to the number N of floating point data elementsof the second source). The replicated values of the floating point dataelement A may represent a vector or packed data that is to be used inthe subsequent floating point scaling operation along with the pluralityof floating point data elements B₀-B_(N) in the second source. In someembodiments, the single floating point data element A may reside inmemory and the data element broadcast may be implemented through a loadoperation (e.g., a load micro-op) derived from the floating pointscaling instruction with broadcast. The broadcast of the single dataelement may represent a pre-processing data transformation prior toperforming the floating point scaling operation.

A result packed floating point data 1022 may be stored in thedestination in response to the floating point scaling with broadcastoperation and/or instruction. The result may include a plurality ofpacked floating point data elements C₀-C_(N) that each correspond to arespective one of the plurality of packed floating point data elementsB₀-B_(N) of the second source. Each of the plurality of packed resultfloating point data elements (C_(i)) may include the correspondingfloating point data element of the second source (B_(i)) multiplied by abase (e.g., base 2) raised to a power of an integer representative ofthe corresponding single floating point data element of the first source(int(A)). Notice that the single floating point data element of thefirst source is used for each of the result data elements.

Other embodiments pertain to masked floating point scaling instructionsand/or operations. The masked floating point scaling instructions mayspecify or otherwise indicate packed data operation masks. The packeddata operation masks may also be referred to herein simply as masks.Each mask may represent a predicate operand or conditional controloperand that may mask, predicate, or conditionally control whether ornot floating point scaling operations associated with the instructionare to be performed and/or whether or not results of the floating pointscaling operations are to be stored. In some embodiments, each mask maybe operable to mask the floating point scaling operations at per-dataelement granularity. Each mask may allow the floating point scalingoperations for different result data elements to be predicated orconditionally controlled separately and/or independently of the otherresult data elements.

The masks may each include multiple mask elements, predicate elements,conditional control elements, or flags. The elements or flags may beincluded in a one-to-one correspondence with result data elements (e.g.,if there are four result data elements there may be four elements orflags). Each element or flag may be operable to mask a separate packeddata operation and/or storage of a floating point scaling result in thecorresponding result data element. Commonly each element or flag may bea single bit. The single bit may allow specifying either of twodifferent possibilities (e.g., perform the operation versus do notperform the operation, store a result of the operation versus do notstore a result of the operation, etc.).

A binary value of each bit of the mask may predicate or control whetheror not a floating point scaling operation associated with the maskedfloating point scaling instruction is to be performed and/or whether ornot a result of the floating point scaling operation is to be stored.According to one possible convention, each bit may be set (i.e., have abinary value of 1) or cleared (i.e., have a binary value of 0),respectively, to allow or not allow a result of a floating point scalingoperation, performed on data elements of the first and second sourcesindicated by the masked floating point scaling instruction, to be storedin a corresponding result data element.

In some embodiments, merging-masking may be performed. Inmerging-masking, when an operation is masked out, a value of acorresponding data element from a source packed data may be stored inthe corresponding result data element. For example, if a source is to bereused as the destination, then the corresponding destination dataelement may retain its initial source value (i.e., not be updated with acalculation result). In other embodiments, zeroing-masking may beperformed. In zeroing-masking, when an operation is masked out, thecorresponding result data element may be zeroed out or a value of zeromay be stored in the corresponding result data element. Alternatively,other predetermined values may be stored in the masked out result dataelements.

In some embodiments, the floating point scaling operation may optionallybe performed on all corresponding pairs of data elements of the firstand second source data regardless of the corresponding bits of the mask,but the results may or may not be stored in the result packed datadepending upon the corresponding bits of the mask. Alternatively, inanother embodiment, the floating point scaling operations may optionallybe omitted (i.e., not performed) if the corresponding bits of the maskspecify that the results of the operations are not to be stored in thepacked data result. In some embodiments, exceptions and/or violationsmay optionally be suppressed for, or not raised by, an operation on amasked-off element. In some embodiments, for masked floating pointscaling instructions with a memory operand, memory faults may optionallybe suppressed for masked-off data elements.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a maskedfloating point scaling operation 1124 that may be performed in responseto an embodiment of a masked floating point scaling instruction. Theinstruction specifies or otherwise indicates a first source 1117including packed floating point data elements A₀-A_(N), a second source1118 including packed floating point data elements B₀-B_(N), a packeddata operation mask 1128, and a destination (e.g., a destination storagelocation). By way of example, in the case of 512-bit wide packed dataand 32-bit single precision floating point data elements the mask mayinclude sixteen 1-bit mask bits, or in the case of 64-bit doubleprecision floating point data elements the mask may include eight 1-bitmask bits.

A result packed floating point data 1122 including a plurality of resultfloating point data elements is stored in the destination in response tothe instruction. When the result floating point data elements are notmasked out by the packed data operation mask (e.g., in the illustrationwhen the corresponding mask bit is set to 1), a result of the floatingpoint scaling operation is stored. Alternatively, when the floatingpoint data elements are masked out by the packed data operation mask(e.g., in the illustration when the corresponding mask bit is cleared to0), some other value such as a zeroed or merged value is stored.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a suitable set of packeddata operation mask registers 1206. Each of the registers may be used tostore a packed data operation mask. In the illustrated embodiment, theset includes eight packed data operation mask registers labeled k0through k7. Alternate embodiments may include either fewer than eight(e.g., two, four, six, etc.) or more than eight (e.g., sixteen, twenty,thirty-two, etc.) packed data operation mask registers. In theillustrated embodiment, each of the packed data operation mask registersis 64-bits. In alternate embodiments, the widths of the packed dataoperation mask registers may be either wider than 64-bits (e.g.,80-bits, 128-bits, etc.) or narrower than 64-bits (e.g., 8-bits,16-bits, 32-bits, etc). The packed data operation mask registers may beimplemented in different ways using well known techniques and are notlimited to any known particular type of circuit.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a floatingpoint scaling operation with addition 1324 that may be performed inresponse to an embodiment of a floating point scaling instruction withaddition. The floating point scaling instruction with addition specifiesor otherwise indicates a first source 1317 including packed floatingpoint data elements A₀-A_(N), a second source 1318 including packedfloating point data elements B₀-B_(N), a third source 1332 includingpacked floating point data elements D₀-D_(N), and a destination (e.g., adestination storage location).

A result packed floating point data 1322 including a plurality of resultfloating point data elements C₀-C_(N) is stored in the destination inresponse to the instruction. Each of the result floating point dataelements (C_(i)) includes a sum of the corresponding floating point dataelement of the third source (D_(i)) added to a product of thecorresponding floating point data element of the second source (B_(i))multiplied by a base (in the illustrated embodiment base 2) raised to apower of an integer representative of the corresponding floating pointdata element of the first source (int(A₁)).

FIG. 14 is a block diagram of an embodiment of an instruction format fora floating point scaling instruction 1403. The instruction formatincludes an operation code or opcode 1433. The opcode may represent aplurality of bits or one or more fields that are operable to identifythe instruction and/or the operation to be performed.

As shown, in some embodiments, the instruction format may include afirst source specifier 1434 to explicitly specify a first source operandor storage location, a second source specifier 1435 to explicitlyspecify a second source operand or storage location, and a destinationspecifier 1436 to explicitly specify a destination operand or storagelocation where a result is to be stored. By way of example, each ofthese specifiers may include an address of a register, memory location,or other storage location. Alternatively, as previously mentioned, oneor more of the first source, the second source, or the destination maybe implicit to the instruction, as opposed to being explicitlyspecified. For example, one of the sources may optionally be reused asthe destination and the initial contents may be overwritten with theresult, in which case the destination may be implicitly indicated to beone of the sources. In another embodiment, one or more additionalsources may optionally be implicitly indicated or explicitly specifiedto provide one or more additional operands (e.g., to provide the addeddata elements 1332 of FIG. 13).

In some embodiments in which the instruction is a floating point scalinginstruction with data element broadcast, the instruction format mayinclude an optional broadcast control 1437. The broadcast control mayinclude one or more bits or fields to indicate that data elementbroadcast is to be performed to broadcast a single source data elementaccessed from a specified or indicated storage location into a pluralityof source data elements used by the instruction.

In some embodiments in which the instruction is a masked floating pointscaling instruction, the instruction format may include an optional maskspecifier 1438 to explicitly specify a packed data operation maskoperand or storage location (e.g., a mask register). Alternatively, thepacked data operation mask may be implicitly indicated. In someembodiments, the instruction format may also include an optional type ofmasking operation specifier 1439. The type of masking operationspecifier may specify a type of masking operation. By way of example,the type of masking operation specifier may include a single bit tospecify whether merging-masking or zeroing-masking is to be performed.Alternatively, the type of masking operation may be implicitly indicated(e.g., in an implicit control register). As mentioned above, masking isoptional and not required.

In some embodiments, the floating point scaling instruction format mayinclude an optional floating point rounding control 1440. The floatingpoint rounding control may override a default floating point roundingmode of a processor and be used to round the final result of theinstruction. Floating point operations commonly utilize arithmeticfloating point rounding. For example, rounding may be used when theresult of a floating-point operation or a conversion to floating-pointneeds more digits than provided by the significand. By way of example,certain Intel processors have control registers (e.g., machine statusand control registers known as MXCSR) that includes rounding modecontrol bits (e.g., RM) to specify the default rounding mode. Thefloating point rounding control of the instruction may represent one ormore bits or fields to explicitly specify an arithmetic floating pointrounding mode that is to override the default floating point roundingmode. In some embodiments, the encoding prefix of the instruction mayallow instruction prefix-based rounding control. Examples of suitablerounding modes include, but are not limited to, the following roundingmodes: (1) round to nearest, where ties round to the nearest even digit;(2) round down, toward negative infinity, where negative results roundaway from zero; (3) round up, toward positive infinity, where negativeresults round toward zero; and (4) round toward zero, truncate. In someembodiments, each of these rounding modes may also have support for anSAE (suppress all exceptions) attribute to disable reporting offloating-point exceptions.

The illustrated instruction format shows examples of the types of fieldsthat may be included in an embodiment of a floating point scalinginstruction. As shown, some embodiments may combine broadcasting withmasking and may also specify a rounding mode. Alternate embodiments mayinclude a subset of the illustrated fields or may add additional fields.The illustrated order/arrangement of the fields is not required, butrather the fields may be rearranged. Fields need not include contiguoussequences of bits but rather may be composed of non-contiguous orseparated bits. In some embodiments, the instruction format may followan EVEX encoding or instruction format, although this is not required.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a suitable set of packeddata registers 1505. The illustrated packed data registers includethirty-two 512-bit packed data or vector registers. These thirty-two512-bit registers are labeled ZMM0 through ZMM31. In the illustratedembodiment, the lower order 256-bits of the lower sixteen of theseregisters, namely ZMM0-ZMM15, are aliased or overlaid on respective256-bit packed data or vector registers labeled YMM0-YMM15, althoughthis is not required. Likewise, in the illustrated embodiment, the lowerorder 128-bits of YMM0-YMM15 are aliased or overlaid on respective128-bit packed data or vector registers labeled XMM0-XMM1, although thisalso is not required. The 512-bit registers ZMM0 through ZMM31 areoperable to hold 512-bit packed data, 256-bit packed data, or 128-bitpacked data. The 256-bit registers YMM0-YMM15 are operable to hold256-bit packed data, or 128-bit packed data. The 128-bit registersXMM0-XMM1 are operable to hold 128-bit packed data. Each of theregisters may be used to store either packed floating-point data orpacked integer data. In some aspects, scalar floating point data mayalso be stored in the packed data registers. Different data elementsizes are supported including at least 8-bit byte data, 16-bit worddata, 32-bit doubleword or single precision floating point data, and64-bit quadword or double precision floating point data. Alternateembodiments of packed data registers may include different numbers ofregisters, different sizes of registers, and may or may not alias largerregisters on smaller registers.

FIG. 16 is a block diagram of an article of manufacture (e.g., acomputer program product) 1642 including a machine-readable storagemedium 1643. In some embodiments, the machine-readable storage mediummay be a tangible and/or non-transitory machine-readable storage medium.In various example embodiments, the machine-readable storage medium mayinclude a floppy diskette, an optical disk, a CD-ROM, a magnetic disk, amagneto-optical disk, a read only memory (ROM), a programmable ROM(PROM), an erasable-and-programmable ROM (EPROM), anelectrically-erasable-and-programmable ROM (EEPROM), a random accessmemory (RAM), a static-RAM (SRAM), a dynamic-RAM (DRAM), a Flash memory,a phase-change memory, a semiconductor memory, other types of memory, ora combinations thereof. In some embodiments, the medium may include oneor more solid data storage materials, such as, for example, asemiconductor data storage material, a phase-change data storagematerial, a magnetic data storage material, an optically transparentsolid data storage material, etc.

The machine-readable storage medium stores one or more floating pointscaling instructions 1603. Each of the floating point scalinginstructions indicates a first source including one or more floatingpoint data elements, indicates a second source including one or morecorresponding floating point data elements, and indicates a destination.Each of the floating point scaling instructions, if executed by amachine, is operable to cause the machine to store a result in adestination. The result includes one or more corresponding resultfloating point data elements. Each of the one or more result floatingpoint data elements includes a corresponding floating point data elementof the second source multiplied by a base of the one or more floatingpoint data elements of the first source raised to a power of an integerrepresentative of the corresponding floating point data element of thefirst source. Any of the floating point scaling instructions andassociated results disclosed herein is suitable.

Examples of different types of machines include, but are not limited to,processors (e.g., general-purpose processors and special-purposeprocessors), instruction processing apparatus, and various electronicdevices having one or more processors or instruction processingapparatus. A few representative examples of such electronic devicesinclude, but are not limited to, computer systems, desktops, laptops,notebooks, servers, network routers, network switches, nettops, set-topboxes, cellular phones, video game controllers, etc.

To further illustrate certain concepts, consider the following detailedexample embodiment of a floating point scaling instruction andoperation. This floating point scaling instruction is known as VSCALEFPDwhich scales packed double precision floating point (float64) valueswith other double precision floating point values. Table 1 lists opcodesfor the instruction and provides a description of the operationperformed.

TABLE 1 VSCALEFPD - Scale Packed Float64 Values with Float64 ValuesOpcode/Instruction Description EVEX.U1.NDS.128.66.0F38.W1 2C/r Scale thepacked double-precision floating point VSCALEFPD xmm1 {k1}{z}, xmm2,values in xmm2 using values from xmm3/mV. xmm3/B64(mV){er} Underwritemask k1. EVEX.U1.NDS.256.66.0F38.W1 2C/r Scale the packeddouble-precision floating- VSCALEFPD ymm1 {k1}{z}, ymm2, point values inymm2 using values from ymm3/B64(mV){er} ymm3/mV. Under writemask k1.EVEX.U1.NDS.512.66.0F38.W1 2C/r Scale the packed double-precisionfloating- VSCALEFPD zmm1 {k1}{z}, zmm2, point values in zmm2 usingvalues from zmm3/B64(mV){er} zmm3/mV. Under writemask k1.

EVEX refers to the EVEX encoding described elsewhere herein. Xmm, ymm,and zmm represent 128-bit, 256-bit, and 512-bit packed data registers.The {k1} indicates a mask register (e.g., one of k0-k7) that is used asa writemask. The {z} indicates the type of masking (e.g.,merging-masking or zeroing masking). The {er} indicates support forembedded rounding control, which is applicable to the register-registerform of the instruction, and also implies support for suppress allexceptions (SAE). The B64 (mV) indicates a broadcast vector memoryoperand for a broadcast of a 64-bit double precision floating pointelement into a vector.

Table 2 lists the instruction operand encoding. ModRM allows forregister (reg) or register or memory (r/m). The (r) indicates read andthe (w) indicates write.

TABLE 2 Instruction Operand Encoding Operand1 Operand2 Operand3ModRM:reg(w) VEX.vvvv (r) ModRM:r/m (r)

The VSCALEFPD operation performs a floating point scale of the packeddouble-precision floating-point values in the first source operand bymultiplying it by 2 power of the double-precision floating point valuesin second source operand. The equation of this operation is given by:

zmm1=zmm2*2^(floor(zmm3)).

Floor(zmm3) means maximum integer value ≤zmm3.

If the result cannot be represented with a double-precisionfloating-point, then the properly signed INF (for positive scalingoperand) or 0 (for negative scaling operand) will be returned.

The pseudocode for the operation is shown below. In this pseudocode,SRC1 represents a first source, SRC2 represents a second source, andDEST represents a destination. KL represents a length of the mask and VLrepresents a length of the vector or packed data. SET_RM sets therounding mode from either embedded rounding control (EVEX.RC) or from adefault rounding mode in a control register (MXCSR.RM). EVEX.b==1enables embedded rounding mode and SAE control for a register-registerinstruction. EVEX.b==1 enables embedded broadcast when SRC2 *is memory*.The symbol ← represents storing.

Operation: SCALE(SRC1, SRC2)   {   /* SRC2 is a 64 bits floating pointvalue */   DEST[63:0] = SRC1[63:0] * POW(2, Floor(SRC2[63:0]))   }  VSCALEFPD (EVEX encoded versions)   (KL, VL) = (2, 128), (4, 256), (8,512)   IF (VL == 512) AND (EVEX.b == 1) AND (SRC2 *is register*)     THEN         SET_RM(EVEX.RC);      ELSE         SET_RM(MXCSR.RM);  FI;   FOR j ← 0 TO KL−1      i ← j * 64      IF k1[j] OR *nowritemask* THEN         IF (EVEX.b == 1) AND (SRC2 *is memory*)           THEN DEST[i+63:i] ← SCALE(SRC1[i+63:i], SRC2[63:0]);broadcast            ELSE DEST[i+63:i] ← SCALE(SRC1[i+63:i],SRC2[i+63:i]);         FI;         ELSE         IF*merging-masking*        ; merging-masking            THEN *DEST[i+63:i]remains unchanged*            ELSE            ; zeroing-masking              DEST[i+63:i] = 0         FI      FI;   ENDFOR  DEST[MAX_VL−1:VL] ← 0

Table 3 lists special cases for VSCALEFPD. Inf refers to infinity, QNaNrefers to quiet not a number.

TABLE 3 Special Cases Src2 0/Denorm Src1 +/−NaN +Inf −Inf /Norm +/−NaNQNaN(Src2) +Inf +0 QNaN(Src1) +/− Inf QNaN(Src2) Src1 QNaN Src1Indefinite +/−0 QNaN(Src2) QNaN Indefinite Src1 Src1 Denorm/ QNaN(Src2)Sign(Src1) * Inf Sign(Src1) * Compute Norm 0 Result

This is just one example embodiment. Other embodiments for singleprecision floating point values, scalar double precision floating point,and scalar single precision floating point are also possible. Stillother embodiments may omit masking and/or broadcast or other featuresshown.

An instruction set includes one or more instruction formats. A giveninstruction format defines various fields (number of bits, location ofbits) to specify, among other things, the operation to be performed(opcode) and the operand(s) on which that operation is to be performed.Some instruction formats are further broken down though the definitionof instruction templates (or subformats). For example, the instructiontemplates of a given instruction format may be defined to have differentsubsets of the instruction format's fields (the included fields aretypically in the same order, but at least some have different bitpositions because there are less fields included) and/or defined to havea given field interpreted differently. Thus, each instruction of an ISAis expressed using a given instruction format (and, if defined, in agiven one of the instruction templates of that instruction format) andincludes fields for specifying the operation and the operands. Forexample, an exemplary ADD instruction has a specific opcode and aninstruction format that includes an opcode field to specify that opcodeand operand fields to select operands (source1/destination and source2);and an occurrence of this ADD instruction in an instruction stream willhave specific contents in the operand fields that select specificoperands. A set of SIMD extensions referred to the Advanced VectorExtensions (AVX) (AVX1 and AVX2) and using the Vector Extensions (VEX)coding scheme, has been, has been released and/or published (e.g., seeIntel® 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software Developers Manual, October2011; and see Intel® Advanced Vector Extensions Programming Reference,June 2011).

Exemplary Instruction Formats

Embodiments of the instruction(s) described herein may be embodied indifferent formats. Additionally, exemplary systems, architectures, andpipelines are detailed below. Embodiments of the instruction(s) may beexecuted on such systems, architectures, and pipelines, but are notlimited to those detailed.

Generic Vector Friendly Instruction Format

A vector friendly instruction format is an instruction format that issuited for vector instructions (e.g., there are certain fields specificto vector operations). While embodiments are described in which bothvector and scalar operations are supported through the vector friendlyinstruction format, alternative embodiments use only vector operationsthe vector friendly instruction format.

FIGS. 17A-17B are block diagrams illustrating a generic vector friendlyinstruction format and instruction templates thereof according toembodiments of the invention. FIG. 17A is a block diagram illustrating ageneric vector friendly instruction format and class A instructiontemplates thereof according to embodiments of the invention; while FIG.17B is a block diagram illustrating the generic vector friendlyinstruction format and class B instruction templates thereof accordingto embodiments of the invention. Specifically, a generic vector friendlyinstruction format 1700 for which are defined class A and class Binstruction templates, both of which include no memory access 1705instruction templates and memory access 1720 instruction templates. Theterm generic in the context of the vector friendly instruction formatrefers to the instruction format not being tied to any specificinstruction set.

While embodiments of the invention will be described in which the vectorfriendly instruction format supports the following: a 64 byte vectoroperand length (or size) with 32 bit (4 byte) or 64 bit (8 byte) dataelement widths (or sizes) (and thus, a 64 byte vector consists of either16 doubleword-size elements or alternatively, 8 quadword-size elements);a 64 byte vector operand length (or size) with 16 bit (2 byte) or 8 bit(1 byte) data element widths (or sizes); a 32 byte vector operand length(or size) with 32 bit (4 byte), 64 bit (8 byte), 16 bit (2 byte), or 8bit (1 byte) data element widths (or sizes); and a 16 byte vectoroperand length (or size) with 32 bit (4 byte), 64 bit (8 byte), 16 bit(2 byte), or 8 bit (1 byte) data element widths (or sizes); alternativeembodiments may support more, less and/or different vector operand sizes(e.g., 256 byte vector operands) with more, less, or different dataelement widths (e.g., 128 bit (16 byte) data element widths).

The class A instruction templates in FIG. 17A include: 1) within the nomemory access 1705 instruction templates there is shown a no memoryaccess, full round control type operation 1710 instruction template anda no memory access, data transform type operation 1715 instructiontemplate; and 2) within the memory access 1720 instruction templatesthere is shown a memory access, temporal 1725 instruction template and amemory access, non-temporal 1730 instruction template. The class Binstruction templates in FIG. 17B include: 1) within the no memoryaccess 1705 instruction templates there is shown a no memory access,write mask control, partial round control type operation 1712instruction template and a no memory access, write mask control, vsizetype operation 1717 instruction template; and 2) within the memoryaccess 1720 instruction templates there is shown a memory access, writemask control 1727 instruction template.

The generic vector friendly instruction format 1700 includes thefollowing fields listed below in the order illustrated in FIGS. 17A-17B.

Format field 1740—a specific value (an instruction format identifiervalue) in this field uniquely identifies the vector friendly instructionformat, and thus occurrences of instructions in the vector friendlyinstruction format in instruction streams. As such, this field isoptional in the sense that it is not needed for an instruction set thathas only the generic vector friendly instruction format.

Base operation field 1742—its content distinguishes different baseoperations.

Register index field 1744—its content, directly or through addressgeneration, specifies the locations of the source and destinationoperands, be they in registers or in memory. These include a sufficientnumber of bits to select N registers from a PxQ (e.g. 32×512, 16×128,32×1024, 64×1024) register file. While in one embodiment N may be up tothree sources and one destination register, alternative embodiments maysupport more or less sources and destination registers (e.g., maysupport up to two sources where one of these sources also acts as thedestination, may support up to three sources where one of these sourcesalso acts as the destination, may support up to two sources and onedestination).

Modifier field 1746—its content distinguishes occurrences ofinstructions in the generic vector instruction format that specifymemory access from those that do not; that is, between no memory access1705 instruction templates and memory access 1720 instruction templates.Memory access operations read and/or write to the memory hierarchy (insome cases specifying the source and/or destination addresses usingvalues in registers), while non-memory access operations do not (e.g.,the source and destinations are registers). While in one embodiment thisfield also selects between three different ways to perform memoryaddress calculations, alternative embodiments may support more, less, ordifferent ways to perform memory address calculations. Augmentationoperation field 1750—its content distinguishes which one of a variety ofdifferent operations to be performed in addition to the base operation.This field is context specific. In one embodiment of the invention, thisfield is divided into a class field 1768, an alpha field 1752, and abeta field 1754. The augmentation operation field 1750 allows commongroups of operations to be performed in a single instruction rather than2, 3, or 4 instructions.

Scale field 1760—its content allows for the scaling of the index field'scontent for memory address generation (e.g., for address generation thatuses 2^(scale)*index+base).

Displacement Field 1762A—its content is used as part of memory addressgeneration (e.g., for address generation that uses2^(scale)*index+base+displacement).

Displacement Factor Field 1762B (note that the juxtaposition ofdisplacement field 1762A directly over displacement factor field 1762Bindicates one or the other is used)—its content is used as part ofaddress generation; it specifies a displacement factor that is to bescaled by the size of a memory access (N)—where N is the number of bytesin the memory access (e.g., for address generation that uses2^(scale)*index+base+scaled displacement). Redundant low-order bits areignored and hence, the displacement factor field's content is multipliedby the memory operands total size (N) in order to generate the finaldisplacement to be used in calculating an effective address. The valueof N is determined by the processor hardware at runtime based on thefull opcode field 1774 (described later herein) and the datamanipulation field 1754C. The displacement field 1762A and thedisplacement factor field 1762B are optional in the sense that they arenot used for the no memory access 1705 instruction templates and/ordifferent embodiments may implement only one or none of the two.

Data element width field 1764—its content distinguishes which one of anumber of data element widths is to be used (in some embodiments for allinstructions; in other embodiments for only some of the instructions).This field is optional in the sense that it is not needed if only onedata element width is supported and/or data element widths are supportedusing some aspect of the opcodes.

Write mask field 1770—its content controls, on a per data elementposition basis, whether that data element position in the destinationvector operand reflects the result of the base operation andaugmentation operation. Class A instruction templates supportmerging-writemasking, while class B instruction templates support bothmerging- and zeroing-writemasking. When merging, vector masks allow anyset of elements in the destination to be protected from updates duringthe execution of any operation (specified by the base operation and theaugmentation operation); in other one embodiment, preserving the oldvalue of each element of the destination where the corresponding maskbit has a 0. In contrast, when zeroing vector masks allow any set ofelements in the destination to be zeroed during the execution of anyoperation (specified by the base operation and the augmentationoperation); in one embodiment, an element of the destination is set to 0when the corresponding mask bit has a 0 value. A subset of thisfunctionality is the ability to control the vector length of theoperation being performed (that is, the span of elements being modified,from the first to the last one); however, it is not necessary that theelements that are modified be consecutive. Thus, the write mask field1770 allows for partial vector operations, including loads, stores,arithmetic, logical, etc. While embodiments of the invention aredescribed in which the write mask field's 1770 content selects one of anumber of write mask registers that contains the write mask to be used(and thus the write mask field's 1770 content indirectly identifies thatmasking to be performed), alternative embodiments instead or additionalallow the mask write field's 1770 content to directly specify themasking to be performed.

Immediate field 1772—its content allows for the specification of animmediate. This field is optional in the sense that is it not present inan implementation of the generic vector friendly format that does notsupport immediate and it is not present in instructions that do not usean immediate.

Class field 1768—its content distinguishes between different classes ofinstructions. With reference to FIGS. 17A-B, the contents of this fieldselect between class A and class B instructions. In FIGS. 17A-B, roundedcorner squares are used to indicate a specific value is present in afield (e.g., class A 1768A and class B 1768B for the class field 1768respectively in FIGS. 17A-B).

Instruction Templates of Class A

In the case of the non-memory access 1705 instruction templates of classA, the alpha field 1752 is interpreted as an RS field 1752A, whosecontent distinguishes which one of the different augmentation operationtypes are to be performed (e.g., round 1752A.1 and data transform1752A.2 are respectively specified for the no memory access, round typeoperation 1710 and the no memory access, data transform type operation1715 instruction templates), while the beta field 1754 distinguisheswhich of the operations of the specified type is to be performed. In theno memory access 1705 instruction templates, the scale field 1760, thedisplacement field 1762A, and the displacement scale filed 1762B are notpresent.

No-Memory Access Instruction Templates—Full Round Control Type Operation

In the no memory access full round control type operation 1710instruction template, the beta field 1754 is interpreted as a roundcontrol field 1754A, whose content(s) provide static rounding. While inthe described embodiments of the invention the round control field 1754Aincludes a suppress all floating point exceptions (SAE) field 1756 and around operation control field 1758, alternative embodiments may supportmay encode both these concepts into the same field or only have one orthe other of these concepts/fields (e.g., may have only the roundoperation control field 1758).

SAE field 1756—its content distinguishes whether or not to disable theexception event reporting; when the SAE field's 1756 content indicatessuppression is enabled, a given instruction does not report any kind offloating-point exception flag and does not raise any floating pointexception handler.

Round operation control field 1758—its content distinguishes which oneof a group of rounding operations to perform (e.g., Round-up,Round-down, Round-towards-zero and Round-to-nearest). Thus, the roundoperation control field 1758 allows for the changing of the roundingmode on a per instruction basis. In one embodiment of the inventionwhere a processor includes a control register for specifying roundingmodes, the round operation control field's 1750 content overrides thatregister value.

No Memory Access Instruction Templates—Data Transform Type Operation

In the no memory access data transform type operation 1715 instructiontemplate, the beta field 1754 is interpreted as a data transform field1754B, whose content distinguishes which one of a number of datatransforms is to be performed (e.g., no data transform, swizzle,broadcast).

In the case of a memory access 1720 instruction template of class A, thealpha field 1752 is interpreted as an eviction hint field 1752B, whosecontent distinguishes which one of the eviction hints is to be used (inFIG. 17A, temporal 1752B.1 and non-temporal 1752B.2 are respectivelyspecified for the memory access, temporal 1725 instruction template andthe memory access, non-temporal 1730 instruction template), while thebeta field 1754 is interpreted as a data manipulation field 1754C, whosecontent distinguishes which one of a number of data manipulationoperations (also known as primitives) is to be performed (e.g., nomanipulation; broadcast; up conversion of a source; and down conversionof a destination). The memory access 1720 instruction templates includethe scale field 1760, and optionally the displacement field 1762A or thedisplacement scale field 1762B.

Vector memory instructions perform vector loads from and vector storesto memory, with conversion support. As with regular vector instructions,vector memory instructions transfer data from/to memory in a dataelement-wise fashion, with the elements that are actually transferred isdictated by the contents of the vector mask that is selected as thewrite mask.

Memory Access Instruction Templates—Temporal

Temporal data is data likely to be reused soon enough to benefit fromcaching. This is, however, a hint, and different processors mayimplement it in different ways, including ignoring the hint entirely.

Memory Access Instruction Templates—Non-Temporal

Non-temporal data is data unlikely to be reused soon enough to benefitfrom caching in the 1st-level cache and should be given priority foreviction. This is, however, a hint, and different processors mayimplement it in different ways, including ignoring the hint entirely.

Instruction Templates of Class B

In the case of the instruction templates of class B, the alpha field1752 is interpreted as a write mask control (Z) field 1752C, whosecontent distinguishes whether the write masking controlled by the writemask field 1770 should be a merging or a zeroing.

In the case of the non-memory access 1705 instruction templates of classB, part of the beta field 1754 is interpreted as an RL field 1757A,whose content distinguishes which one of the different augmentationoperation types are to be performed (e.g., round 1757A.1 and vectorlength (VSIZE) 1757A.2 are respectively specified for the no memoryaccess, write mask control, partial round control type operation 1712instruction template and the no memory access, write mask control, VSIZEtype operation 1717 instruction template), while the rest of the betafield 1754 distinguishes which of the operations of the specified typeis to be performed. In the no memory access 1705 instruction templates,the scale field 1760, the displacement field 1762A, and the displacementscale filed 1762B are not present.

In the no memory access, write mask control, partial round control typeoperation 1710 instruction template, the rest of the beta field 1754 isinterpreted as a round operation field 1759A and exception eventreporting is disabled (a given instruction does not report any kind offloating-point exception flag and does not raise any floating pointexception handler).

Round operation control field 1759A—just as round operation controlfield 1758, its content distinguishes which one of a group of roundingoperations to perform (e.g., Round-up, Round-down, Round-towards-zeroand Round-to-nearest). Thus, the round operation control field 1759Aallows for the changing of the rounding mode on a per instruction basis.In one embodiment of the invention where a processor includes a controlregister for specifying rounding modes, the round operation controlfield's 1750 content overrides that register value.

In the no memory access, write mask control, VSIZE type operation 1717instruction template, the rest of the beta field 1754 is interpreted asa vector length field 1759B, whose content distinguishes which one of anumber of data vector lengths is to be performed on (e.g., 128, 256, or512 byte).

In the case of a memory access 1720 instruction template of class B,part of the beta field 1754 is interpreted as a broadcast field 1757B,whose content distinguishes whether or not the broadcast type datamanipulation operation is to be performed, while the rest of the betafield 1754 is interpreted the vector length field 1759B. The memoryaccess 1720 instruction templates include the scale field 1760, andoptionally the displacement field 1762A or the displacement scale field1762B.

With regard to the generic vector friendly instruction format 1700, afull opcode field 1774 is shown including the format field 1740, thebase operation field 1742, and the data element width field 1764. Whileone embodiment is shown where the full opcode field 1774 includes all ofthese fields, the full opcode field 1774 includes less than all of thesefields in embodiments that do not support all of them. The full opcodefield 1774 provides the operation code (opcode).

The augmentation operation field 1750, the data element width field1764, and the write mask field 1770 allow these features to be specifiedon a per instruction basis in the generic vector friendly instructionformat.

The combination of write mask field and data element width field createtyped instructions in that they allow the mask to be applied based ondifferent data element widths.

The various instruction templates found within class A and class B arebeneficial in different situations. In some embodiments of theinvention, different processors or different cores within a processormay support only class A, only class B, or both classes. For instance, ahigh performance general purpose out-of-order core intended forgeneral-purpose computing may support only class B, a core intendedprimarily for graphics and/or scientific (throughput) computing maysupport only class A, and a core intended for both may support both (ofcourse, a core that has some mix of templates and instructions from bothclasses but not all templates and instructions from both classes iswithin the purview of the invention).

Also, a single processor may include multiple cores, all of whichsupport the same class or in which different cores support differentclass. For instance, in a processor with separate graphics and generalpurpose cores, one of the graphics cores intended primarily for graphicsand/or scientific computing may support only class A, while one or moreof the general purpose cores may be high performance general purposecores with out of order execution and register renaming intended forgeneral-purpose computing that support only class B. Another processorthat does not have a separate graphics core, may include one moregeneral purpose in-order or out-of-order cores that support both class Aand class B. Of course, features from one class may also be implement inthe other class in different embodiments of the invention. Programswritten in a high level language would be put (e.g., just in timecompiled or statically compiled) into an variety of different executableforms, including: 1) a form having only instructions of the class(es)supported by the target processor for execution; or 2) a form havingalternative routines written using different combinations of theinstructions of all classes and having control flow code that selectsthe routines to execute based on the instructions supported by theprocessor which is currently executing the code.

Exemplary Specific Vector Friendly Instruction Format

FIG. 18 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary specific vectorfriendly instruction format according to embodiments of the invention.FIG. 18 shows a specific vector friendly instruction format 1800 that isspecific in the sense that it specifies the location, size,interpretation, and order of the fields, as well as values for some ofthose fields. The specific vector friendly instruction format 1800 maybe used to extend the x86 instruction set, and thus some of the fieldsare similar or the same as those used in the existing x86 instructionset and extension thereof (e.g., AVX). This format remains consistentwith the prefix encoding field, real opcode byte field, MOD RIM field,SIB field, displacement field, and immediate fields of the existing x86instruction set with extensions. The fields from FIG. 17 into which thefields from FIG. 18 map are illustrated.

It should be understood that, although embodiments of the invention aredescribed with reference to the specific vector friendly instructionformat 1800 in the context of the generic vector friendly instructionformat 1700 for illustrative purposes, the invention is not limited tothe specific vector friendly instruction format 1800 except whereclaimed. For example, the generic vector friendly instruction format1700 contemplates a variety of possible sizes for the various fields,while the specific vector friendly instruction format 1800 is shown ashaving fields of specific sizes. By way of specific example, while thedata element width field 1764 is illustrated as a one bit field in thespecific vector friendly instruction format 1800, the invention is notso limited (that is, the generic vector friendly instruction format 1700contemplates other sizes of the data element width field 1764).

The generic vector friendly instruction format 1700 includes thefollowing fields listed below in the order illustrated in FIG. 18A.

EVEX Prefix (Bytes 0-3) 1802—is encoded in a four-byte form.

Format Field 1740 (EVEX Byte 0, bits [7:0])—the first byte (EVEX Byte 0)is the format field 1740 and it contains 0x62 (the unique value used fordistinguishing the vector friendly instruction format in one embodimentof the invention).

The second-fourth bytes (EVEX Bytes 1-3) include a number of bit fieldsproviding specific capability.

REX field 1805 (EVEX Byte 1, bits [7-5])—consists of a EVEX.R bit field(EVEX Byte 1, bit [7]-R), EVEX.X bit field (EVEX byte 1, bit [6]-X), and1757BEX byte 1, bit[5]-B). The EVEX.R, EVEX.X, and EVEX.B bit fieldsprovide the same functionality as the corresponding VEX bit fields, andare encoded using 1s complement form, i.e. ZMM0 is encoded as 1111B,ZMM15 is encoded as 0000B. Other fields of the instructions encode thelower three bits of the register indexes as is known in the art (rrr,xxx, and bbb), so that Rrrr, Xxxx, and Bbbb may be formed by addingEVEX.R, EVEX.X, and EVEX.B.

REX′ field 1710—this is the first part of the REX′ field 1710 and is theEVEX.R′ bit field (EVEX Byte 1, bit [4]-R′) that is used to encodeeither the upper 16 or lower 16 of the extended 32 register set. In oneembodiment of the invention, this bit, along with others as indicatedbelow, is stored in bit inverted format to distinguish (in thewell-known x86 32-bit mode) from the BOUND instruction, whose realopcode byte is 62, but does not accept in the MOD R/M field (describedbelow) the value of 11 in the MOD field; alternative embodiments of theinvention do not store this and the other indicated bits below in theinverted format. A value of 1 is used to encode the lower 16 registers.In other words, R′Rrrr is formed by combining EVEX.R′, EVEX.R, and theother RRR from other fields.

Opcode map field 1815 (EVEX byte 1, bits [3:0]-mmmm)—its content encodesan implied leading opcode byte (0F, 0F 38, or 0F 3).

Data element width field 1764 (EVEX byte 2, bit [7]-W)—is represented bythe notation EVEX.W. EVEX.W is used to define the granularity (size) ofthe datatype (either 32-bit data elements or 64-bit data elements).

EVEX.vvvv 1820 (EVEX Byte 2, bits [6:3]-vvvv)—the role of EVEX.vvvv mayinclude the following: 1) EVEX.vvvv encodes the first source registeroperand, specified in inverted (1s complement) form and is valid forinstructions with 2 or more source operands; 2) EVEX.vvvv encodes thedestination register operand, specified in 1s complement form forcertain vector shifts; or 3) EVEX.vvvv does not encode any operand, thefield is reserved and should contain 1111b. Thus, EVEX.vvvv field 1820encodes the 4 low-order bits of the first source register specifierstored in inverted (1s complement) form. Depending on the instruction,an extra different EVEX bit field is used to extend the specifier sizeto 32 registers.

EVEX.U 1768 Class field (EVEX byte 2, bit [2]-U)—If EVEX.0=0, itindicates class A or EVEX.U0; if EVEX.U=1, it indicates class B orEVEX.U1.

Prefix encoding field 1825 (EVEX byte 2, bits [1:0]-pp)—providesadditional bits for the base operation field. In addition to providingsupport for the legacy SSE instructions in the EVEX prefix format, thisalso has the benefit of compacting the SIMD prefix (rather thanrequiring a byte to express the SIMD prefix, the EVEX prefix requiresonly 2 bits). In one embodiment, to support legacy SSE instructions thatuse a SIMD prefix (66H, F2H, F3H) in both the legacy format and in theEVEX prefix format, these legacy SIMD prefixes are encoded into the SIMDprefix encoding field; and at runtime are expanded into the legacy SIMDprefix prior to being provided to the decoder's PLA (so the PLA canexecute both the legacy and EVEX format of these legacy instructionswithout modification). Although newer instructions could use the EVEXprefix encoding field's content directly as an opcode extension, certainembodiments expand in a similar fashion for consistency but allow fordifferent meanings to be specified by these legacy SIMD prefixes. Analternative embodiment may redesign the PLA to support the 2 bit SIMDprefix encodings, and thus not require the expansion.

Alpha field 1752 (EVEX byte 3, bit [7]-EH; also known as EVEX.EH,EVEX.rs, EVEX.RL, EVEX.write mask control, and EVEX.N; also illustratedwith α)—as previously described, this field is context specific.

Beta field 1754 (EVEX byte 3, bits [6:4]-SSS, also known as EVEX.s₂₋₀,EVEX.r₂₋₀, EVEX.rr1, EVEX.LL0, EVEX.LLB; also illustrated with βββ)—aspreviously described, this field is context specific.

REX′ field 1710—this is the remainder of the REX′ field and is theEVEX.V′ bit field (EVEX Byte 3, bit [3]-V′) that may be used to encodeeither the upper 16 or lower 16 of the extended 32 register set. Thisbit is stored in bit inverted format. A value of 1 is used to encode thelower 16 registers. In other words, V′VVVV is formed by combiningEVEX.V′, EVEX.vvvv.

Write mask field 1770 (EVEX byte 3, bits [2:0]-kkk)—its contentspecifies the index of a register in the write mask registers aspreviously described. In one embodiment of the invention, the specificvalue EVEX kkk=000 has a special behavior implying no write mask is usedfor the particular instruction (this may be implemented in a variety ofways including the use of a write mask hardwired to all ones or hardwarethat bypasses the masking hardware).

Real Opcode Field 1830 (Byte 4) is also known as the opcode byte. Partof the opcode is specified in this field.

MOD R/M Field 1840 (Byte 5) includes MOD field 1842, Reg field 1844, andR/M field 1846. As previously described, the MOD field's 1842 contentdistinguishes between memory access and non-memory access operations.The role of Reg field 1844 can be summarized to two situations: encodingeither the destination register operand or a source register operand, orbe treated as an opcode extension and not used to encode any instructionoperand. The role of R/M field 1846 may include the following: encodingthe instruction operand that references a memory address, or encodingeither the destination register operand or a source register operand.

Scale, Index, Base (SIB) Byte (Byte 6)—As previously described, thescale field's 1750 content is used for memory address generation.SIB.xxx 1854 and SIB.bbb 1856—the contents of these fields have beenpreviously referred to with regard to the register indexes Xxxx andBbbb.

Displacement field 1762A (Bytes 7-10)—when MOD field 1842 contains 10,bytes 7-10 are the displacement field 1762A, and it works the same asthe legacy 32-bit displacement (disp32) and works at byte granularity.

Displacement factor field 1762B (Byte 7)—when MOD field 1842 contains01, byte 7 is the displacement factor field 1762B. The location of thisfield is that same as that of the legacy x86 instruction set 8-bitdisplacement (disp8), which works at byte granularity. Since disp8 issign extended, it can only address between −128 and 127 bytes offsets;in terms of 64 byte cache lines, disp8 uses 8 bits that can be set toonly four really useful values −128, −64, 0, and 64; since a greaterrange is often needed, disp32 is used; however, disp32 requires 4 bytes.In contrast to disp8 and disp32, the displacement factor field 1762B isa reinterpretation of disp8; when using displacement factor field 1762B,the actual displacement is determined by the content of the displacementfactor field multiplied by the size of the memory operand access (N).This type of displacement is referred to as disp8*N. This reduces theaverage instruction length (a single byte of used for the displacementbut with a much greater range). Such compressed displacement is based onthe assumption that the effective displacement is multiple of thegranularity of the memory access, and hence, the redundant low-orderbits of the address offset do not need to be encoded. In other words,the displacement factor field 1762B substitutes the legacy x86instruction set 8-bit displacement. Thus, the displacement factor field1762B is encoded the same way as an x86 instruction set 8-bitdisplacement (so no changes in the ModRM/SIB encoding rules) with theonly exception that disp8 is overloaded to disp8*N. In other words,there are no changes in the encoding rules or encoding lengths but onlyin the interpretation of the displacement value by hardware (which needsto scale the displacement by the size of the memory operand to obtain abyte-wise address offset).

Immediate field 1772 operates as previously described.

Full Opcode Field

FIG. 18B is a block diagram illustrating the fields of the specificvector friendly instruction format 1800 that make up the full opcodefield 1774 according to one embodiment of the invention. Specifically,the full opcode field 1774 includes the format field 1740, the baseoperation field 1742, and the data element width (W) field 1764. Thebase operation field 1742 includes the prefix encoding field 1825, theopcode map field 1815, and the real opcode field 1830.

Register Index Field

FIG. 18C is a block diagram illustrating the fields of the specificvector friendly instruction format 1800 that make up the register indexfield 1744 according to one embodiment of the invention. Specifically,the register index field 1744 includes the REX field 1805, the REX′field 1810, the MODR/M.reg field 1844, the MODR/M.r/m field 1846, theVVVV field 1820, xxx field 1854, and the bbb field 1856.

Augmentation Operation Field

FIG. 18D is a block diagram illustrating the fields of the specificvector friendly instruction format 1800 that make up the augmentationoperation field 1750 according to one embodiment of the invention. Whenthe class (U) field 1768 contains 0, it signifies EVEX.U0 (class A1768A); when it contains 1, it signifies EVEX.U1 (class B 1768B). WhenU=0 and the MOD field 1842 contains 11 (signifying a no memory accessoperation), the alpha field 1752 (EVEX byte 3, bit [7]-EH) isinterpreted as the rs field 1752A. When the rs field 1752A contains a 1(round 1752A.1), the beta field 1754 (EVEX byte 3, bits [6:4]-SSS) isinterpreted as the round control field 1754A. The round control field1754A includes a one bit SAE field 1756 and a two bit round operationfield 1758. When the rs field 1752A contains a 0 (data transform1752A.2), the beta field 1754 (EVEX byte 3, bits [6:4]-SSS) isinterpreted as a three bit data transform field 1754B. When U=0 and theMOD field 1842 contains 00, 01, or 10 (signifying a memory accessoperation), the alpha field 1752 (EVEX byte 3, bit [7]-EH) isinterpreted as the eviction hint (EH) field 1752B and the beta field1754 (EVEX byte 3, bits [6:4]-SSS) is interpreted as a three bit datamanipulation field 1754C.

When U=1, the alpha field 1752 (EVEX byte 3, bit [7]-EH) is interpretedas the write mask control (Z) field 1752C. When U=1 and the MOD field1842 contains 11 (signifying a no memory access operation), part of thebeta field 1754 (EVEX byte 3, bit [4]-S₀) is interpreted as the RL field1757A; when it contains a 1 (round 1757A.1) the rest of the beta field1754 (EVEX byte 3, bit [6-5]-S₂₋₁) is interpreted as the round operationfield 1759A, while when the RL field 1757A contains a 0 (VSIZE 1757.A2)the rest of the beta field 1754 (EVEX byte 3, bit [6-5]-S₂₋₁) isinterpreted as the vector length field 1759B (EVEX byte 3, bit[6-5]-L₁₋₀). When U=1 and the MOD field 1842 contains 00, 01, or 10(signifying a memory access operation), the beta field 1754 (EVEX byte3, bits [6:4]-SSS) is interpreted as the vector length field 1759B (EVEXbyte 3, bit [6-5]-L₁₋₀) and the broadcast field 1757B (EVEX byte 3, bit[4]-B).

Exemplary Register Architecture

FIG. 19 is a block diagram of a register architecture 1900 according toone embodiment of the invention. In the embodiment illustrated, thereare 32 vector registers 1910 that are 512 bits wide; these registers arereferenced as zmm0 through zmm31. The lower order 256 bits of the lower16 zmm registers are overlaid on registers ymm0-16. The lower order 128bits of the lower 16 zmm registers (the lower order 128 bits of the ymmregisters) are overlaid on registers xmm0-15. The specific vectorfriendly instruction format 1800 operates on these overlaid registerfile as illustrated in the below tables.

Adjustable Vector Length Class Operations Registers InstructionTemplates A (FIG. 1710, 1715, zmm registers (the vector that do notinclude the 17A; 1725, 1730 length is 64 byte) vector length field U =0) 1759B B (FIG. 1712 zmm registers (the vector 17B; length is 64 byte)U = 1) Instruction templates B (FIG. 1717, 1727 zmm, ymm, or xmm that doinclude the 17B; registers (the vector vector length field U = 1) lengthis 64 byte, 32 1759B byte, or 16 byte) depending on the vector lengthfield 1759B

In other words, the vector length field 1759B selects between a maximumlength and one or more other shorter lengths, where each such shorterlength is half the length of the preceding length; and instructionstemplates without the vector length field 1759B operate on the maximumvector length. Further, in one embodiment, the class B instructiontemplates of the specific vector friendly instruction format 1800operate on packed or scalar single/double-precision floating point dataand packed or scalar integer data. Scalar operations are operationsperformed on the lowest order data element position in an zmm/ymm/xmmregister; the higher order data element positions are either left thesame as they were prior to the instruction or zeroed depending on theembodiment.

Write mask registers 1915—in the embodiment illustrated, there are 8write mask registers (k0 through k7), each 64 bits in size. In analternate embodiment, the write mask registers 1915 are 16 bits in size.As previously described, in one embodiment of the invention, the vectormask register k0 cannot be used as a write mask; when the encoding thatwould normally indicate k0 is used for a write mask, it selects ahardwired write mask of 0xFFFF, effectively disabling write masking forthat instruction.

General-purpose registers 1925—in the embodiment illustrated, there aresixteen 64-bit general-purpose registers that are used along with theexisting x86 addressing modes to address memory operands. Theseregisters are referenced by the names RAX, RBX, RCX, RDX, RBP, RSI, RDI,RSP, and R8 through R15.

Scalar floating point stack register file (x87 stack) 1945, on which isaliased the MMX packed integer flat register file 1950—in the embodimentillustrated, the x87 stack is an eight-element stack used to performscalar floating-point operations on 32/64/80-bit floating point datausing the x87 instruction set extension; while the MMX registers areused to perform operations on 64-bit packed integer data, as well as tohold operands for some operations performed between the MMX and XMMregisters.

Alternative embodiments of the invention may use wider or narrowerregisters. Additionally, alternative embodiments of the invention mayuse more, less, or different register files and registers.

Exemplary Core Architectures, Processors, and Computer Architectures

Processor cores may be implemented in different ways, for differentpurposes, and in different processors. For instance, implementations ofsuch cores may include: 1) a general purpose in-order core intended forgeneral-purpose computing; 2) a high performance general purposeout-of-order core intended for general-purpose computing; 3) a specialpurpose core intended primarily for graphics and/or scientific(throughput) computing. Implementations of different processors mayinclude: 1) a CPU including one or more general purpose in-order coresintended for general-purpose computing and/or one or more generalpurpose out-of-order cores intended for general-purpose computing; and2) a coprocessor including one or more special purpose cores intendedprimarily for graphics and/or scientific (throughput). Such differentprocessors lead to different computer system architectures, which mayinclude: 1) the coprocessor on a separate chip from the CPU; 2) thecoprocessor on a separate die in the same package as a CPU; 3) thecoprocessor on the same die as a CPU (in which case, such a coprocessoris sometimes referred to as special purpose logic, such as integratedgraphics and/or scientific (throughput) logic, or as special purposecores); and 4) a system on a chip that may include on the same die thedescribed CPU (sometimes referred to as the application core(s) orapplication processor(s)), the above described coprocessor, andadditional functionality. Exemplary core architectures are describednext, followed by descriptions of exemplary processors and computerarchitectures.

Exemplary Core Architectures

In-Order and Out-of-Order Core Block Diagram

FIG. 20A is a block diagram illustrating both an exemplary in-orderpipeline and an exemplary register renaming, out-of-orderissue/execution pipeline according to embodiments of the invention. FIG.20B is a block diagram illustrating both an exemplary embodiment of anin-order architecture core and an exemplary register renaming,out-of-order issue/execution architecture core to be included in aprocessor according to embodiments of the invention. The solid linedboxes in FIGS. 20A-B illustrate the in-order pipeline and in-order core,while the optional addition of the dashed lined boxes illustrates theregister renaming, out-of-order issue/execution pipeline and core. Giventhat the in-order aspect is a subset of the out-of-order aspect, theout-of-order aspect will be described.

In FIG. 20A, a processor pipeline 2000 includes a fetch stage 2002, alength decode stage 2004, a decode stage 2006, an allocation stage 2008,a renaming stage 2010, a scheduling (also known as a dispatch or issue)stage 2012, a register read/memory read stage 2014, an execute stage2016, a write back/memory write stage 2018, an exception handling stage2022, and a commit stage 2024.

FIG. 20B shows processor core 2090 including a front end unit 2030coupled to an execution engine unit 2050, and both are coupled to amemory unit 2070. The core 2090 may be a reduced instruction setcomputing (RISC) core, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) core,a very long instruction word (VLIW) core, or a hybrid or alternativecore type. As yet another option, the core 2090 may be a special-purposecore, such as, for example, a network or communication core, compressionengine, coprocessor core, general purpose computing graphics processingunit (GPGPU) core, graphics core, or the like.

The front end unit 2030 includes a branch prediction unit 2032 coupledto an instruction cache unit 2034, which is coupled to an instructiontranslation lookaside buffer (TLB) 2036, which is coupled to aninstruction fetch unit 2038, which is coupled to a decode unit 2040. Thedecode unit 2040 (or decoder) may decode instructions, and generate asan output one or more micro-operations, micro-code entry points,microinstructions, other instructions, or other control signals, whichare decoded from, or which otherwise reflect, or are derived from, theoriginal instructions. The decode unit 2040 may be implemented usingvarious different mechanisms. Examples of suitable mechanisms include,but are not limited to, look-up tables, hardware implementations,programmable logic arrays (PLAs), microcode read only memories (ROMs),etc. In one embodiment, the core 2090 includes a microcode ROM or othermedium that stores microcode for certain macroinstructions (e.g., indecode unit 2040 or otherwise within the front end unit 2030). Thedecode unit 2040 is coupled to a rename/allocator unit 2052 in theexecution engine unit 2050.

The execution engine unit 2050 includes the rename/allocator unit 2052coupled to a retirement unit 2054 and a set of one or more schedulerunit(s) 2056. The scheduler unit(s) 2056 represents any number ofdifferent schedulers, including reservations stations, centralinstruction window, etc. The scheduler unit(s) 2056 is coupled to thephysical register file(s) unit(s) 2058. Each of the physical registerfile(s) units 2058 represents one or more physical register files,different ones of which store one or more different data types, such asscalar integer, scalar floating point, packed integer, packed floatingpoint, vector integer, vector floating point, status (e.g., aninstruction pointer that is the address of the next instruction to beexecuted), etc. In one embodiment, the physical register file(s) unit2058 comprises a vector registers unit, a write mask registers unit, anda scalar registers unit. These register units may provide architecturalvector registers, vector mask registers, and general purpose registers.The physical register file(s) unit(s) 2058 is overlapped by theretirement unit 2054 to illustrate various ways in which registerrenaming and out-of-order execution may be implemented (e.g., using areorder buffer(s) and a retirement register file(s); using a futurefile(s), a history buffer(s), and a retirement register file(s); using aregister maps and a pool of registers; etc.). The retirement unit 2054and the physical register file(s) unit(s) 2058 are coupled to theexecution cluster(s) 2060. The execution cluster(s) 2060 includes a setof one or more execution units 2062 and a set of one or more memoryaccess units 2064. The execution units 2062 may perform variousoperations (e.g., shifts, addition, subtraction, multiplication) and onvarious types of data (e.g., scalar floating point, packed integer,packed floating point, vector integer, vector floating point). Whilesome embodiments may include a number of execution units dedicated tospecific functions or sets of functions, other embodiments may includeonly one execution unit or multiple execution units that all perform allfunctions. The scheduler unit(s) 2056, physical register file(s) unit(s)2058, and execution cluster(s) 2060 are shown as being possibly pluralbecause certain embodiments create separate pipelines for certain typesof data/operations (e.g., a scalar integer pipeline, a scalar floatingpoint/packed integer/packed floating point/vector integer/vectorfloating point pipeline, and/or a memory access pipeline that each havetheir own scheduler unit, physical register file(s) unit, and/orexecution cluster—and in the case of a separate memory access pipeline,certain embodiments are implemented in which only the execution clusterof this pipeline has the memory access unit(s) 2064). It should also beunderstood that where separate pipelines are used, one or more of thesepipelines may be out-of-order issue/execution and the rest in-order.

The set of memory access units 2064 is coupled to the memory unit 2070,which includes a data TLB unit 2072 coupled to a data cache unit 2074coupled to a level 2 (L2) cache unit 2076. In one exemplary embodiment,the memory access units 2064 may include a load unit, a store addressunit, and a store data unit, each of which is coupled to the data TLBunit 2072 in the memory unit 2070. The instruction cache unit 2034 isfurther coupled to a level 2 (L2) cache unit 2076 in the memory unit2070. The L2 cache unit 2076 is coupled to one or more other levels ofcache and eventually to a main memory.

By way of example, the exemplary register renaming, out-of-orderissue/execution core architecture may implement the pipeline 2000 asfollows: 1) the instruction fetch 2038 performs the fetch and lengthdecoding stages 2002 and 2004; 2) the decode unit 2040 performs thedecode stage 2006; 3) the rename/allocator unit 2052 performs theallocation stage 2008 and renaming stage 2010; 4) the scheduler unit(s)2056 performs the schedule stage 2012; 5) the physical register file(s)unit(s) 2058 and the memory unit 2070 perform the register read/memoryread stage 2014; the execution cluster 2060 perform the execute stage2016; 6) the memory unit 2070 and the physical register file(s) unit(s)2058 perform the write back/memory write stage 2018; 7) various unitsmay be involved in the exception handling stage 2022; and 8) theretirement unit 2054 and the physical register file(s) unit(s) 2058perform the commit stage 2024.

The core 2090 may support one or more instructions sets (e.g., the x86instruction set (with some extensions that have been added with newerversions); the MIPS instruction set of MIPS Technologies of Sunnyvale,Calif.; the ARM instruction set (with optional additional extensionssuch as NEON) of ARM Holdings of Sunnyvale, Calif.), including theinstruction(s) described herein. In one embodiment, the core 2090includes logic to support a packed data instruction set extension (e.g.,AVX1, AVX2), thereby allowing the operations used by many multimediaapplications to be performed using packed data.

It should be understood that the core may support multithreading(executing two or more parallel sets of operations or threads), and maydo so in a variety of ways including time sliced multithreading,simultaneous multithreading (where a single physical core provides alogical core for each of the threads that physical core issimultaneously multithreading), or a combination thereof (e.g., timesliced fetching and decoding and simultaneous multithreading thereaftersuch as in the Intel® Hyperthreading technology).

While register renaming is described in the context of out-of-orderexecution, it should be understood that register renaming may be used inan in-order architecture. While the illustrated embodiment of theprocessor also includes separate instruction and data cache units2034/2074 and a shared L2 cache unit 2076, alternative embodiments mayhave a single internal cache for both instructions and data, such as,for example, a Level 1 (L1) internal cache, or multiple levels ofinternal cache. In some embodiments, the system may include acombination of an internal cache and an external cache that is externalto the core and/or the processor. Alternatively, all of the cache may beexternal to the core and/or the processor.

Specific Exemplary In-Order Core Architecture

FIGS. 21A-B illustrate a block diagram of a more specific exemplaryin-order core architecture, which core would be one of several logicblocks (including other cores of the same type and/or different types)in a chip. The logic blocks communicate through a high-bandwidthinterconnect network (e.g., a ring network) with some fixed functionlogic, memory I/O interfaces, and other necessary I/O logic, dependingon the application.

FIG. 21A is a block diagram of a single processor core, along with itsconnection to the on-die interconnect network 2102 and with its localsubset of the Level 2 (L2) cache 2104, according to embodiments of theinvention. In one embodiment, an instruction decoder 2100 supports thex86 instruction set with a packed data instruction set extension. An L1cache 2106 allows low-latency accesses to cache memory into the scalarand vector units. While in one embodiment (to simplify the design), ascalar unit 2108 and a vector unit 2110 use separate register sets(respectively, scalar registers 2112 and vector registers 2114) and datatransferred between them is written to memory and then read back in froma level 1 (L1) cache 2106, alternative embodiments of the invention mayuse a different approach (e.g., use a single register set or include acommunication path that allow data to be transferred between the tworegister files without being written and read back).

The local subset of the L2 cache 2104 is part of a global L2 cache thatis divided into separate local subsets, one per processor core. Eachprocessor core has a direct access path to its own local subset of theL2 cache 2104. Data read by a processor core is stored in its L2 cachesubset 2104 and can be accessed quickly, in parallel with otherprocessor cores accessing their own local L2 cache subsets. Data writtenby a processor core is stored in its own L2 cache subset 2104 and isflushed from other subsets, if necessary. The ring network ensurescoherency for shared data. The ring network is bi-directional to allowagents such as processor cores, L2 caches and other logic blocks tocommunicate with each other within the chip. Each ring data-path is1012-bits wide per direction.

FIG. 21B is an expanded view of part of the processor core in FIG. 21Aaccording to embodiments of the invention. FIG. 21B includes an L1 datacache 2106A part of the L1 cache 2104, as well as more detail regardingthe vector unit 2110 and the vector registers 2114. Specifically, thevector unit 2110 is a 16-wide vector processing unit (VPU) (see the16-wide ALU 2128), which executes one or more of integer,single-precision float, and double-precision float instructions. The VPUsupports swizzling the register inputs with swizzle unit 2120, numericconversion with numeric convert units 2122A-B, and replication withreplication unit 2124 on the memory input. Write mask registers 2126allow predicating resulting vector writes.

Processor with Integrated Memory Controller and Graphics

FIG. 22 is a block diagram of a processor 2200 that may have more thanone core, may have an integrated memory controller, and may haveintegrated graphics according to embodiments of the invention. The solidlined boxes in FIG. 22 illustrate a processor 2200 with a single core2202A, a system agent 2210, a set of one or more bus controller units2216, while the optional addition of the dashed lined boxes illustratesan alternative processor 2200 with multiple cores 2202A-N, a set of oneor more integrated memory controller unit(s) 2214 in the system agentunit 2210, and special purpose logic 2208.

Thus, different implementations of the processor 2200 may include: 1) aCPU with the special purpose logic 2208 being integrated graphics and/orscientific (throughput) logic (which may include one or more cores), andthe cores 2202A-N being one or more general purpose cores (e.g., generalpurpose in-order cores, general purpose out-of-order cores, acombination of the two); 2) a coprocessor with the cores 2202A-N being alarge number of special purpose cores intended primarily for graphicsand/or scientific (throughput); and 3) a coprocessor with the cores2202A-N being a large number of general purpose in-order cores. Thus,the processor 2200 may be a general-purpose processor, coprocessor orspecial-purpose processor, such as, for example, a network orcommunication processor, compression engine, graphics processor, GPGPU(general purpose graphics processing unit), a high-throughput manyintegrated core (MIC) coprocessor (including 30 or more cores), embeddedprocessor, or the like. The processor may be implemented on one or morechips. The processor 2200 may be a part of and/or may be implemented onone or more substrates using any of a number of process technologies,such as, for example, BiCMOS, CMOS, or NMOS.

The memory hierarchy includes one or more levels of cache within thecores, a set or one or more shared cache units 2206, and external memory(not shown) coupled to the set of integrated memory controller units2214. The set of shared cache units 2206 may include one or moremid-level caches, such as level 2 (L2), level 3 (L3), level 4 (L4), orother levels of cache, a last level cache (LLC), and/or combinationsthereof. While in one embodiment a ring based interconnect unit 2212interconnects the integrated graphics logic 2208, the set of sharedcache units 2206, and the system agent unit 2210/integrated memorycontroller unit(s) 2214, alternative embodiments may use any number ofwell-known techniques for interconnecting such units. In one embodiment,coherency is maintained between one or more cache units 2206 and cores2202-A-N.

In some embodiments, one or more of the cores 2202A-N are capable ofmulti-threading. The system agent 2210 includes those componentscoordinating and operating cores 2202A-N. The system agent unit 2210 mayinclude for example a power control unit (PCU) and a display unit. ThePCU may be or include logic and components needed for regulating thepower state of the cores 2202A-N and the integrated graphics logic 2208.The display unit is for driving one or more externally connecteddisplays.

The cores 2202A-N may be homogenous or heterogeneous in terms ofarchitecture instruction set; that is, two or more of the cores 2202A-Nmay be capable of execution the same instruction set, while others maybe capable of executing only a subset of that instruction set or adifferent instruction set.

Exemplary Computer Architectures

FIGS. 23-26 are block diagrams of exemplary computer architectures.Other system designs and configurations known in the arts for laptops,desktops, handheld PCs, personal digital assistants, engineeringworkstations, servers, network devices, network hubs, switches, embeddedprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs), graphics devices, videogame devices, set-top boxes, micro controllers, cell phones, portablemedia players, hand held devices, and various other electronic devices,are also suitable. In general, a huge variety of systems or electronicdevices capable of incorporating a processor and/or other executionlogic as disclosed herein are generally suitable.

Referring now to FIG. 23, shown is a block diagram of a system 2300 inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention. The system 2300may include one or more processors 2310, 2315, which are coupled to acontroller hub 2320. In one embodiment the controller hub 2320 includesa graphics memory controller hub (GMCH) 2390 and an Input/Output Hub(IOH) 2350 (which may be on separate chips); the GMCH 2390 includesmemory and graphics controllers to which are coupled memory 2340 and acoprocessor 2345; the IOH 2350 is couples input/output (I/O) devices2360 to the GMCH 2390. Alternatively, one or both of the memory andgraphics controllers are integrated within the processor (as describedherein), the memory 2340 and the coprocessor 2345 are coupled directlyto the processor 2310, and the controller hub 2320 in a single chip withthe IOH 2350.

The optional nature of additional processors 2315 is denoted in FIG. 23with broken lines. Each processor 2310, 2315 may include one or more ofthe processing cores described herein and may be some version of theprocessor 2200.

The memory 2340 may be, for example, dynamic random access memory(DRAM), phase change memory (PCM), or a combination of the two. For atleast one embodiment, the controller hub 2320 communicates with theprocessor(s) 2310, 2315 via a multi-drop bus, such as a frontside bus(FSB), point-to-point interface such as QuickPath Interconnect (QPI), orsimilar connection 2395.

In one embodiment, the coprocessor 2345 is a special-purpose processor,such as, for example, a high-throughput MIC processor, a network orcommunication processor, compression engine, graphics processor, GPGPU,embedded processor, or the like. In one embodiment, controller hub 2320may include an integrated graphics accelerator.

There can be a variety of differences between the physical resources2310, 2315 in terms of a spectrum of metrics of merit includingarchitectural, microarchitectural, thermal, power consumptioncharacteristics, and the like.

In one embodiment, the processor 2310 executes instructions that controldata processing operations of a general type. Embedded within theinstructions may be coprocessor instructions. The processor 2310recognizes these coprocessor instructions as being of a type that shouldbe executed by the attached coprocessor 2345. Accordingly, the processor2310 issues these coprocessor instructions (or control signalsrepresenting coprocessor instructions) on a coprocessor bus or otherinterconnect, to coprocessor 2345. Coprocessor(s) 2345 accept andexecute the received coprocessor instructions.

Referring now to FIG. 24, shown is a block diagram of a first morespecific exemplary system 2400 in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention. As shown in FIG. 24, multiprocessor system 2400 is apoint-to-point interconnect system, and includes a first processor 2470and a second processor 2480 coupled via a point-to-point interconnect2450. Each of processors 2470 and 2480 may be some version of theprocessor 2200. In one embodiment of the invention, processors 2470 and2480 are respectively processors 2310 and 2315, while coprocessor 2438is coprocessor 2345. In another embodiment, processors 2470 and 2480 arerespectively processor 2310 coprocessor 2345.

Processors 2470 and 2480 are shown including integrated memorycontroller (IMC) units 2472 and 2482, respectively. Processor 2470 alsoincludes as part of its bus controller units point-to-point (P-P)interfaces 2476 and 2478; similarly, second processor 2480 includes P-Pinterfaces 2486 and 2488. Processors 2470, 2480 may exchange informationvia a point-to-point (P-P) interface 2450 using P-P interface circuits2478, 2488. As shown in FIG. 24, IMCs 2472 and 2482 couple theprocessors to respective memories, namely a memory 2432 and a memory2434, which may be portions of main memory locally attached to therespective processors.

Processors 2470, 2480 may each exchange information with a chipset 2490via individual P-P interfaces 2452, 2454 using point to point interfacecircuits 2476, 2494, 2486, 2498. Chipset 2490 may optionally exchangeinformation with the coprocessor 2438 via a high-performance interface2439. In one embodiment, the coprocessor 2438 is a special-purposeprocessor, such as, for example, a high-throughput MIC processor, anetwork or communication processor, compression engine, graphicsprocessor, GPGPU, embedded processor, or the like.

A shared cache (not shown) may be included in either processor oroutside of both processors, yet connected with the processors via P-Pinterconnect, such that either or both processors' local cacheinformation may be stored in the shared cache if a processor is placedinto a low power mode.

Chipset 2490 may be coupled to a first bus 2416 via an interface 2496.In one embodiment, first bus 2416 may be a Peripheral ComponentInterconnect (PCI) bus, or a bus such as a PCI Express bus or anotherthird generation I/O interconnect bus, although the scope of the presentinvention is not so limited.

As shown in FIG. 24, various I/O devices 2414 may be coupled to firstbus 2416, along with a bus bridge 2418 which couples first bus 2416 to asecond bus 2420. In one embodiment, one or more additional processor(s)2415, such as coprocessors, high-throughput MIC processors, GPGPU's,accelerators (such as, e.g., graphics accelerators or digital signalprocessing (DSP) units), field programmable gate arrays, or any otherprocessor, are coupled to first bus 2416. In one embodiment, second bus2420 may be a low pin count (LPC) bus. Various devices may be coupled toa second bus 2420 including, for example, a keyboard and/or mouse 2422,communication devices 2427 and a storage unit 2428 such as a disk driveor other mass storage device which may include instructions/code anddata 2430, in one embodiment. Further, an audio I/O 2424 may be coupledto the second bus 2420. Note that other architectures are possible. Forexample, instead of the point-to-point architecture of FIG. 24, a systemmay implement a multi-drop bus or other such architecture.

Referring now to FIG. 25, shown is a block diagram of a second morespecific exemplary system 2500 in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention Like elements in FIGS. 24 and 25 bear like referencenumerals, and certain aspects of FIG. 24 have been omitted from FIG. 25in order to avoid obscuring other aspects of FIG. 25.

FIG. 25 illustrates that the processors 2470, 2480 may includeintegrated memory and I/O control logic (“CL”) 2472 and 2482,respectively. Thus, the CL 2472, 2482 include integrated memorycontroller units and include I/O control logic. FIG. 25 illustrates thatnot only are the memories 2432, 2434 coupled to the CL 2472, 2482, butalso that I/O devices 2514 are also coupled to the control logic 2472,2482. Legacy I/O devices 2515 are coupled to the chipset 2490.

Referring now to FIG. 26, shown is a block diagram of a SoC 2600 inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Similar elementsin FIG. 22 bear like reference numerals. Also, dashed lined boxes areoptional features on more advanced SoCs. In FIG. 26, an interconnectunit(s) 2602 is coupled to: an application processor 2610 which includesa set of one or more cores 202A-N and shared cache unit(s) 2206; asystem agent unit 2210; a bus controller unit(s) 2216; an integratedmemory controller unit(s) 2214; a set or one or more coprocessors 2620which may include integrated graphics logic, an image processor, anaudio processor, and a video processor; an static random access memory(SRAM) unit 2630; a direct memory access (DMA) unit 2632; and a displayunit 2640 for coupling to one or more external displays. In oneembodiment, the coprocessor(s) 2620 include a special-purpose processor,such as, for example, a network or communication processor, compressionengine, GPGPU, a high-throughput MIC processor, embedded processor, orthe like.

Embodiments of the mechanisms disclosed herein may be implemented inhardware, software, firmware, or a combination of such implementationapproaches. Embodiments of the invention may be implemented as computerprograms or program code executing on programmable systems comprising atleast one processor, a storage system (including volatile andnon-volatile memory and/or storage elements), at least one input device,and at least one output device.

Program code, such as code 2430 illustrated in FIG. 24, may be appliedto input instructions to perform the functions described herein andgenerate output information. The output information may be applied toone or more output devices, in known fashion. For purposes of thisapplication, a processing system includes any system that has aprocessor, such as, for example; a digital signal processor (DSP), amicrocontroller, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or amicroprocessor.

The program code may be implemented in a high level procedural or objectoriented programming language to communicate with a processing system.The program code may also be implemented in assembly or machinelanguage, if desired. In fact, the mechanisms described herein are notlimited in scope to any particular programming language. In any case,the language may be a compiled or interpreted language.

One or more aspects of at least one embodiment may be implemented byrepresentative instructions stored on a machine-readable medium whichrepresents various logic within the processor, which when read by amachine causes the machine to fabricate logic to perform the techniquesdescribed herein. Such representations, known as “IP cores” may bestored on a tangible, machine readable medium and supplied to variouscustomers or manufacturing facilities to load into the fabricationmachines that actually make the logic or processor.

Such machine-readable storage media may include, without limitation,non-transitory, tangible arrangements of articles manufactured or formedby a machine or device, including storage media such as hard disks, anyother type of disk including floppy disks, optical disks, compact diskread-only memories (CD-ROMs), compact disk rewritable's (CD-RWs), andmagneto-optical disks, semiconductor devices such as read-only memories(ROMs), random access memories (RAMs) such as dynamic random accessmemories (DRAMs), static random access memories (SRAMs), erasableprogrammable read-only memories (EPROMs), flash memories, electricallyerasable programmable read-only memories (EEPROMs), phase change memory(PCM), magnetic or optical cards, or any other type of media suitablefor storing electronic instructions.

Accordingly, embodiments of the invention also include non-transitory,tangible machine-readable media containing instructions or containingdesign data, such as Hardware Description Language (HDL), which definesstructures, circuits, apparatuses, processors and/or system featuresdescribed herein. Such embodiments may also be referred to as programproducts.

Emulation (Including Binary Translation, Code Morphing, Etc.)

In some cases, an instruction converter may be used to convert aninstruction from a source instruction set to a target instruction set.For example, the instruction converter may translate (e.g., using staticbinary translation, dynamic binary translation including dynamiccompilation), morph, emulate, or otherwise convert an instruction to oneor more other instructions to be processed by the core. The instructionconverter may be implemented in software, hardware, firmware, or acombination thereof. The instruction converter may be on processor, offprocessor, or part on and part off processor.

In the illustrated embodiment, the instruction converter is a softwareinstruction converter, although alternatively the instruction convertermay be implemented in software, firmware, hardware, or variouscombinations thereof. FIG. 27 shows a program in a high level language2702 may be compiled using an x86 compiler 2704 to generate x86 binarycode 2706 that may be natively executed by a processor with at least onex86 instruction set core 2716. The processor with at least one x86instruction set core 2716 represents any processor that can performsubstantially the same functions as an Intel processor with at least onex86 instruction set core by compatibly executing or otherwise processing(1) a substantial portion of the instruction set of the Intel x86instruction set core or (2) object code versions of applications orother software targeted to run on an Intel processor with at least onex86 instruction set core, in order to achieve substantially the sameresult as an Intel processor with at least one x86 instruction set core.The x86 compiler 2704 represents a compiler that is operable to generatex86 binary code 2706 (e.g., object code) that can, with or withoutadditional linkage processing, be executed on the processor with atleast one x86 instruction set core 2716. Similarly, FIG. 27 shows theprogram in the high level language 2702 may be compiled using analternative instruction set compiler 2708 to generate alternativeinstruction set binary code 2710 that may be natively executed by aprocessor without at least one x86 instruction set core 2714 (e.g., aprocessor with cores that execute the MIPS instruction set of MIPSTechnologies of Sunnyvale, Calif. and/or that execute the ARMinstruction set of ARM Holdings of Sunnyvale, Calif.). The instructionconverter 2712 is used to convert the x86 binary code 2706 into codethat may be natively executed by the processor without an x86instruction set core 2714. This converted code is not likely to be thesame as the alternative instruction set binary code 2710 because aninstruction converter capable of this is difficult to make; however, theconverted code will accomplish the general operation and be made up ofinstructions from the alternative instruction set. Thus, the instructionconverter 2712 represents software, firmware, hardware, or a combinationthereof that, through emulation, simulation or any other process, allowsa processor or other electronic device that does not have an x86instruction set processor or core to execute the x86 binary code 2706.

In the description and claims, the terms “coupled” and/or “connected,”along with their derivatives, have be used. It should be understood thatthese terms are not intended as synonyms for each other. Rather, inparticular embodiments, “connected” may be used to indicate that two ormore elements are in direct physical or electrical contact with eachother. “Coupled” may mean that two or more elements are in directphysical or electrical contact. However, “coupled” may also mean thattwo or more elements are not in direct contact with each other, but yetstill co-operate or interact with each other. For example, an executionunit may be coupled with a register or a decoder through one or moreintervening components. In the figures, arrows are used to showcouplings and/or connections.

In the description above, specific details have been set forth in orderto provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments. However, otherembodiments may be practiced without some of these specific details. Thescope of the invention is not to be determined by the specific examplesprovided above but only by the claims below. All equivalentrelationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in thespecification are encompassed within embodiments. In other instances,well-known circuits, structures, devices, and operations have been shownin block diagram form or without detail in order to avoid obscuring theunderstanding of the description.

Certain operations may be performed by hardware components and/or may beembodied in a machine-executable or circuit-executable instruction thatmay be used to cause and/or result in a hardware component (e.g., aprocessor, portion of a processor, circuit, etc.) programmed with theinstruction performing the operations. The hardware component mayinclude a general-purpose or special-purpose hardware component. Theoperations may be performed by a combination of hardware, software,and/or firmware. The hardware component may include specific orparticular logic (e.g., circuitry potentially combined with softwareand/or firmware) that is operable to execute and/or process theinstruction and store a result in response to the instruction (e.g., inresponse to one or more microinstructions or other control signalsderived from the instruction).

Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment,” “anembodiment,” “one or more embodiments,” “some embodiments,” for example,indicates that a particular feature may be included in the practice ofthe invention but is not necessarily required to be. Similarly, in thedescription various features are sometimes grouped together in a singleembodiment, Figure, or description thereof for the purpose ofstreamlining the disclosure and aiding in the understanding of variousinventive aspects. This method of disclosure, however, is not to beinterpreted as reflecting an intention that the invention requires morefeatures than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as thefollowing claims reflect, inventive aspects lie in less than allfeatures of a single disclosed embodiment. Thus, the claims followingthe Detailed Description are hereby expressly incorporated into thisDetailed Description, with each claim standing on its own as a separateembodiment of the invention.

1. (canceled)
 2. A system comprising: a system memory; and a processorcoupled to the system memory, the processor comprising: a plurality ofvector registers, including a first vector register, and a second vectorregister, the first vector register to store a first source vectorhaving a plurality of floating-point data elements; a plurality of maskregisters, including a first mask register, the first mask register tostore a mask having a plurality of mask elements; a decode unit todecode an instruction, the instruction having a first field to specifythe first vector register, a second field to specify the second vectorregister, and a third field to specify the first mask register; and afloating-point execution unit coupled with the decode unit, and coupledwith the plurality of vector registers, the floating-point executionunit, in response to the decode of the instruction, to store a resulthaving a plurality of result floating-point data elements in the firstvector register, each result floating-point data element correspondingto a floating-point data element of the first source vector, andcorresponding to a mask element of the mask, in a same relativeposition, each result floating-point data element for which thecorresponding mask element has a first value to represent amultiplication of the corresponding floating-point data element of thefirst source vector by two raised to a power of an integer determinedfrom a corresponding position in the second vector register, and eachresult floating-point data element for which the corresponding maskelement has a second value to include the corresponding floating-pointdata element from the first source vector.
 3. The system of claim 2,wherein the processor comprises a control register to store a roundmode, and wherein the floating-point execution unit, in response to thedecode of the instruction, is further to round the result floating-pointdata elements according to the round mode.
 4. The system of claim 2,wherein when a floating-point data element of the first source vector isa Not a Number (NaN), the corresponding result floating-point dataelement is to be a NaN.
 5. The system of claim 2, wherein theinstruction further comprises a data element width field to indicate awidth of the floating-point data elements of the first source vector. 6.The system of claim 5, wherein the data element width field is able toindicate the width of the floating-point data elements of the firstsource vector as any one of half-precision, single-precision, anddouble-precision.
 7. The system of claim 2, wherein the plurality ofmask registers includes eight mask registers.
 8. The system of claim 2,wherein the first vector register comprises 512-bits.
 9. The system ofclaim 2, wherein the processor further comprises: a level 1 cache; and alevel 2 cache.
 10. The system of claim 2, wherein the processor is areduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor.
 11. The system ofclaim 2, wherein the decode unit and the floating-point execution unitare included in an out-of-order core, and wherein the out-of-order corecomprises a reorder buffer (ROB).
 12. The system of claim 2, wherein theplurality of floating-point data elements of the first source vector areto be 64-bit double-precision floating-point data elements, and whereineach result floating-point data element is to be a 64-bitdouble-precision result floating-point data element.
 13. The system ofclaim 2, wherein the first source vector is to have at least four 64-bitdouble-precision floating-point data elements.
 14. The system of claim2, further comprising a mass storage device coupled to the processor.15. The system of claim 2, further comprising a disk drive coupled tothe processor.
 16. The system of claim 2, further comprising an I/Odevice coupled to the processor.
 17. The system of claim 2, furthercomprising a communication device coupled to the processor.
 18. Thesystem of claim 2, further comprising a second processor coupled to theprocessor.
 19. The system of claim 2, further comprising a PeripheralComponent Interconnect (PCI) Express bus coupled to the processor. 20.The system of claim 2, further comprising audio I/O coupled to theprocessor.
 21. The system of claim 2, wherein the system memorycomprises a dynamic random access memory (DRAM).
 22. A method performedby a system, the method comprising: storing data in a system memory ofthe system; storing data in a plurality of vector registers, includingstoring a first source vector having a plurality of floating-point dataelements in a first vector register, and storing data in a second vectorregister; storing data in a plurality of mask registers, includingstoring a mask having a plurality of mask elements in a first maskregister; decoding an instruction having a first field specifying thefirst vector register, a second field specifying the second vectorregister, and a third field specifying the first mask register; andstoring, in response to the decoding of the instruction, a result havinga plurality of result floating-point data elements, in the first vectorregister, each result floating-point data element corresponding to afloating-point data element of the first source vector, andcorresponding to a mask element of the mask, in a same relativeposition, each result floating-point data element for which thecorresponding mask element has a first value representing amultiplication of the corresponding floating-point data element of thefirst source vector by two raised to a power of an integer determinedfrom a corresponding position in the second vector register, and eachresult floating-point data element for which the corresponding maskelement has a second value including the corresponding floating-pointdata element from the first source vector.
 23. The method of claim 22,further comprising: rounding the result floating-point data elementsaccording to a round mode stored in a control register in response tothe decoding of the instruction; and storing data in a disk drive of thesystem.
 24. The method of claim 22, wherein said storing the firstsource vector comprises storing a given floating-point data element thatis a Not a Number (NaN), and wherein storing the result comprisesstoring a result floating-point data element corresponding to the givenfloating-point data element that is also a NaN, and further comprisingstoring data in a disk drive of the system.
 25. The method of claim 22,wherein said decoding comprises decoding the instruction having a dataelement width field indicating a width of the floating-point dataelements of the first source vector as being half-precision floatingpoint, and further comprising storing data in a disk drive of thesystem.
 26. An article of manufacture comprising a non-transitorymachine-readable storage medium, the non-transitory machine-readablestorage medium storing instructions including an instruction, theinstructions, if performed by a machine, to cause the machine to performoperations comprising to: store data in a system memory of the machine;store data in a plurality of vector registers, including to store afirst source vector having a plurality of floating-point data elementsin a first vector register, and to store data in a second vectorregister; store data in a plurality of mask registers, including tostore a mask having a plurality of mask elements in a first maskregister; decode an instruction having a first field to specify thefirst vector register, a second field to specify the second vectorregister, and a third field to specify the first mask register; andstore, in response to the decode of the instruction, a result which isto have a plurality of result floating-point data elements, in the firstvector register, each result floating-point data element correspondingto a floating-point data element of the first source vector, andcorresponding to a mask element of the mask, in a same relativeposition, each result floating-point data element for which thecorresponding mask element has a first value to represent amultiplication of the corresponding floating-point data element of thefirst source vector by two raised to a power of an integer to bedetermined from a corresponding position in the second vector register,and each result floating-point data element for which the correspondingmask element has a second value to include the correspondingfloating-point data element from the first source vector.
 27. Thearticle of manufacture of claim 26, wherein the instruction, ifperformed by the machine, is to cause the machine to round the resultfloating-point data elements according to a round mode stored in acontrol register, and wherein the instructions further compriseinstructions that, if performed by the machine, are to cause the machineto store data in a disk drive of the machine.
 28. The article ofmanufacture of claim 26, wherein the instruction, if performed by themachine, is to cause the machine to store a result floating-point dataelement that is a Not a Number (NaN) when a corresponding floating-pointdata element of the first source vector is a NaN, and wherein theinstructions further comprise instructions that, if performed by themachine, are to cause the machine to store data in a disk drive of themachine.
 29. The article of manufacture of claim 26, the instruction hasa data element width field to indicate a width of the floating-pointdata elements of the first source vector, and wherein the instructionsfurther comprise instructions that, if performed by the machine, are tocause the machine to store data in a disk drive of the machine.